Sammy Baloji is an artist and photographer whose cross-disciplinary practice explores the entangled histories of colonialism, resource extraction, and cultural memory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Born in Lubumbashi, in the mineral-rich Katanga Province, Baloji grew up in a city shaped by Belgian colonial mining projects—an inheritance that continues to inform his investigations into the lasting impact of imperial expansion on contemporary life.

Drawing on archives, oral histories, and collaborations with scientists, anthropologists, and ethnographers, Baloji interrogates how histories have been obscured, mis-documented, or silenced. His work often centers on photography, a medium imported during colonial expeditions and used to project supposedly “objective” images of the Congolese. By reclaiming this visual language, Baloji challenges its legacy, asking how the same tools can be used to construct new narratives free from colonial frameworks.

Across photography, video, installation, and collaborative research, Baloji reclaims both material and cultural resources as a means of constructing new “contexts of expression.” His practice unearths the past not simply to expose its reverberations in the present, but to question what kind of societies we want to see reflected in the archives of the future.