Ending 27th Jul, 2021 19:26

Aspire X PLP | African Photography Auction 2021

 
  Lot 25
 
Lot 25 - Kongo Astronauts (Democratic Republic of the Congo 1984—; France 1966 —)

25

Kongo Astronauts (Democratic Republic of the Congo 1984—; France 1966 —)
Untitled [Facing the Past] (from the After Schengen series)

archival ink print on Hahnemühle Fine art, Canson Baryta 340 g

Artwork date: 2019
Signature details: accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by Axis Gallery on behalf of the Kongo Astronauts
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 5 + 2AP

Sold for R70,350
Estimated at R60,000 - R80,000


 

archival ink print on Hahnemühle Fine art, Canson Baryta 340 g

Artwork date: 2019
Signature details: accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by Axis Gallery on behalf of the Kongo Astronauts
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 5 + 2AP

(1)

image size: 45 x 60 cm; sheet size: 46 x 61 cm unframed

Kongo Astronauts is an artist collective founded by the Kinshasa-based duo Michel Ekeba and Eléonore Hellio. Their multi-media practice engages with Kinshasa’s alternative culture network and includes photography, film, sculpture, and performance. Kongo Astronauts’ Afrofuturist prism projects a reality that surmounts both the postcolonial chaos of their urban setting and the inchoate persistence of the jungle. At the same time, they shine a critical spotlight on the forces that have shaped this environment and continue to form it. In their images, we sense our own human fragility and catch our own reflections as we struggle with the crises of late capitalism and climate change.

Kongo Astronauts’ images of travel – such as the astronaut in his golden suit, plastered with digital detritus made from minerals mined in the Congo, who stands in the belly of a cargo plane in their After Schengen series – “function as a platform for thinking through Earth’s decimation by an economic project rooted in the colonial project and amplified in the neoliberal era,” as Dominique Malaquais points out. European states that bonded together under the Schengen Agreement imposed a unitary visa system through which they now control the entry of African visitors – much less immigrants – to the colonial “fatherlands” that once exercised authority over them.

Kongo Astronauts describe their practice as “crossing the vertiginous divide of worlds by responding with artist acts to the troubles and syncopations of the contemporary cyborg. A fluctuating collective, Kongo Astronauts is built on the confrontation of experiences and is an attempt to resist the psychic ghettos that cover multiple postcolonial realities. Kongo Astronauts manifests in the inter-zones of digital globalisation, where past, future, and present collide with the politics of privacy and the realities of urban and rural life. A player in post-discipline, Kongo Astronauts’ cosmic apparitions and polysemous fictions engage us to take a multidimensional look at different forms of exile and survival tactics.”

This work has been exhibited as part of Kinshasa Chroniques, Cité de l’architecture & du Patrimoine (Paris, France, 2020 – 2021) and Musée International des Arts Modestes (Sète, France, 2019).

LIVE AUCTION:

If this is a Live Auction you have several methods in which to place your bids.

Please see https://www.aspireart.net/buying/ for more information on bidding in a Live auction.

 

TIMED-ONLINE AUCTION:

If this is a Timed-Online auction - all bidding takes place right here. 

Once logged in, simply enter your maximum bid.

An email will be sent to you if you are winning, if the reserve is not met, or if you are outbid.

As well as receiving emails, you will see the status of your bids on the website with a 'flash' showing your current bid status; you can also view this information on your 'My Account' page.

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Max bid

You can leave a maximum bid by entering the maximum amount that you wish to bid up to on a particular lot. In doing so, the bidding system will automatically and incrementally bid on your behalf, up to your maximum bid amount in the event that you are outbid by another auction registrant.

When you are outbid, the bidding system will automatically bid one increment above the latest winning bid to ensure that you are the winning bidder and will do so until your maximum amount is reached.

Once you are no longer the winning bidder, it means that your maximum bid amount has been outbid by another registrant.

When you are not the winning bidder, but your maximum bid amount is the same as the current winning bid, it means that you were outbid by another registrant whose maximum bidding amount either matches or exceeds your maximum bid amount and that the winning bidder placed their absentee bid prior to yours.

NB: The system gives sequential preference to bidders based on when they first entered their bid into the bidding system.

Auction: Aspire X PLP | African Photography Auction 2021, ending 27th Jul, 2021

The sale, presented in partnership with the Photography Legacy Project (PLP) was the largest collection of African photography ever to come to auction.

Notable inclusions were works by Zimbabwean photographer Tamary Kudita and young award-winning woman photographer, Lee-Ann Olwage who collaborated with Belinda Qaqamba Kafassie. Emerging photographers like Kongo Astronauts collective (DRC) and the documentary imagery of Etinosa Yvonne (Nigeria) added depth and diversity, while the older generation of established practitioners like David Goldblatt, Alf Kumalo and Ernest Cole also featured.

View all lots in this sale

Images *

Drag and drop .jpg images here to upload, or click here to select images.


 

IMPORTANT NOTICE:


 

Logistics

While we endeavour to assist our Clients as much as possible, we require artwork(s) to be delivered and/or collected from our premises by the Client. In instances where a Client is unable to deliver or collect artwork(s), Aspire staff is available to assist in this process by outsourcing the services to one of our preferred Service Providers. The cost for this will be for the Client’s account, with an additional Handling Fee of 15% charged on top of the Service Provider’s invoice.

Aspire Art provides inter-company transfer services for its Clients between Johannesburg and Cape Town branches. These are based on the size of the artwork(s), and charged as follows:

Small (≤60x90x10 cm): R480

Medium (≤90x120x15 cm): R960

Large (≤120x150x20 cm): R1,440

Over-size: Special quote

 

Should artwork(s) be collected or delivered to/from Clients by Aspire Art directly, the following charges will apply:

Collection/delivery ≤20km: R400

Collection/delivery 20km>R800≤50km

Collection/delivery >50km: Special quote

 

Packaging

A flat fee of R100 will be added to the invoice for packaging of unframed works on paper.

 


International Collectors Shipping Package

For collectors based outside South Africa who purchase regularly from Aspire Art’s auctions in South Africa, it does not make sense to ship artworks individually or per auction and pay shipping every time you buy another work. Consequently, we have developed a special collectors’ shipping package to assist in reducing shipping costs and the constant demands of logistics arrangements.

For buyers from outside South Africa, we will keep the artworks you have purchased in storage during the year and then ship all the works you have acquired during the year together, so the shipping costs are reduced. At the end of the annual period, we will source various quotes to get you the best price, and ship all your artworks to your desired address at once.

Aspire Art will arrange suitable storage during, and cost-effective shipping at the end, of the annual period.

 


Collections

Collections are by appointment, with 24-hours’ notice

Clients are requested to contact the relevant office and inform Aspire Art of which artwork(s) they would like to collect, and allow a 24-hour window for Aspire Art’s logistics department to retrieve the artwork(s) and prepare them for collection.

 


Handling Fee

Aspire Art charges a 15% Handling Fee on all Logistics, Framing, Restoration and Conservation arranged by Aspire.