Sammy Baloji

(*1978, DRC)
… and to those North Sea waves whispering sunken stories, 2020
Terrarium and exotic plants
225 × 230 × 130 cm 

The form of Sammy Baloji’s monumental terrarium is inspired by the scientific drawings of minerals produced with the purpose of mapping their exploitation in the Congo. The artist also refers to Wardian cases, portable greenhouses which served to transport exotic plants by sea. This mass world exportation of plants by sea, combined with the extraction of minerals in the colonies, created new economic systems and modified existing natural and cultural ecosystems, a process of uprooting and subjection which contributed to the current climate crisis. In that sense the work lays bare the traces of a colonial past which has kept a resonance down to this day.

Beaufort 2021 Commission