Lecture: 'On-Trade-Off: The Weight of Wonders'

Georges Senga (member of Picha) and Marjolijn Dijkman (co-founder of Enough Room for Space) will introduce ‘On-Trade-Off’, an artistic trajectory initiated by the artists’ initiatives Picha (Lubumbashi, DRC) and Enough Room for Space (Brussels, BE) and some of the works they have developed within this project.

The starting point for the research project On-Trade-Off is the raw material lithium. A naturally occurring element (number three on the periodic table), lithium is currently considered to be ‘the new black gold’ because of its crucial role in the global transition towards a ‘green and fossil fuel free economy’.

Focusing on this one chemical element (Li3) allows the project to zoom in on particular social, ecological, economic and political phenomena that characterise the production processes currently experiencing rapid growth.

These phenomena show striking similarities with production chains as we have known them since the start of triangular trade in the 16th century: inhumane labour in the exploitation and extraction processes; a perpetuated economic imbalance to maintain economic growth; uninformed end consumers who are unaware of both the devastating production chain behind the goods they have purchased and their afterlife in the sense that a recycling scheme is lacking.

Bio - MARJOLIJN DIJKMAN (Groningen, 1978) is an artist and co-founder of Enough Room for Space since 2005, based in Brussels, Belgium. Her works can be seen as a form of science – fiction; partly based on facts and research but often brought into the realm of fiction, abstraction and speculation. Solo shows include: HIAP, FI (2019); OSL Contemporary, NO (2019); NOME, DE (2018); Munch Museum, NO (2018); Fig. 2 at Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), UK (2015); West Space, AU (2015); IKON Gallery & Spike Island, UK (2011); Berkeley Art Museum, US (2008). Group shows include: 4th Screen City Biennale, NO (2019); 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, DRC (2019); 9th Contour Biennale, BE (2019); 1st Fiskars Biennale, FI (2019); Tendencies ’19, BE (2019); ARTEFACT 2019, BE (2019); 21st Biennale of Sydney, AU (2018); Performatik Biennale 2017, BE (2017); 11th Shanghai Biennale, CN (2016); 4th Marrakech Biennale (2012); 7th Mercosul Biennale, BR (2009); 8th Sharjah Biennale, UAE (2007).

Bio - GEORGES SENGA (Lumbumbashi, DRC, 1983) is a member of the artist organisation Picha in Lubumbashi (DRC) since its foundation in 2008. He has had a solo exhibition at A-Foundation in Brussels (2019) and has been presented in group exhibitions such as Multiple Transmissions: Art in the Afropolitan Age, Wiels, Brussels (2019); Kampala Art Biennale and in Muzee to Ostand in 2014; at Rencontres Picha Biennale de Lubumbashi in 2013 & 2009. In 2015 he was a fellow at WIELS Contemporary art centre, Brussels, Belgium, as well as part of the project African Odyssey at the arts center BRASS in Brussels, BE and presented work at the Bamako Biennale, where he received the price Leo the African RAM, and was in residence in Stuttgart Akademi solitude. He was a researcher at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, NL (2018 - 2019). He received the Thami Mnyele Award in Amsterdam in 2019.

Maya Bahner and Todor Rabadzhiyski say about their artwork:

'In response to the Studium Generale lecture titled 'On-Trade-Off: The Weight of Wonders' we explored the chemical compound Lithium. The element plays a crucial role in the economies transition to a green and fossil fuel free future.

With the work Lithiumbatterie, we are exploring similarities and differences of the natural occurring element Lithium and life-giving compounds - Soil, Minerals and Water.'