In Léonard Pongo’s installations, scenes hover between presence and absence. Figures emerge only to dissolve; they drift like memories refusing to settle. This ambiguity is a way of inhabiting the world. In Congolese cosmogonies, the human co-exists horizontally with other species, a concept that operates as an invisible infrastructure to the artist’s work. Pongo’s mixed-media installations, with their superimpositions of textiles, mirrors and veil, aim to sculpt space and create zones of resonance.
In Inhabiting the Landscape (2023), Pongo layers images captured with full-spectrum cameras printed on veil, fabrics and reflective surfaces, and a video projection that depicts the transition between visible and invisible Congolese landscapes. The elements interact, breathe and merge, evoking an incessant cycle of life and death. In Tribute to Tshibola & Upemba (2026), mirrored photographic transfers recompose a banana tree, considered by some Congolese cultures as a symbol of rebirth and rootedness; the woven work, displaying details of twigs and swirling water, echoes traditional symbols while figuratively feeding the fragmented tree, composing a self-sustaining ecosystem. The installation becomes a threshold where the Congolese land transforms into a vessel for knowledge, refracting memory and light.
—Ange-Frédéric Koffi
