Architect and cofounder of Traumnovelle, Johnny Leya invites us on a journey where architecture and visual arts intersect to challenge inherited colonial narratives. Spanning from the late 19th century, when Belgium established the Congo Free State in 1885, through to Congo’s independence in 1960, the talk traces how Belgian Art Nouveau absorbed Congolese resources and visual motifs, embedding imperial ideologies into celebrated European aesthetics.

Yet Style Congo is not only about origins. It is also about ends, reappropriations, and new beginnings. Through critical and speculative readings of ornamentation, urban structures, and institutional forms, Leya exposes how architecture can both veil and reveal power. In parallel, the work of Léonard Pongo offers a multi-layered, contemporary vision of Congo, emancipated from colonial framings.

Set at the crossroads of aesthetics and politics, the talk turns to today’s curatorial practices in Belgium and beyond that seek to rewrite inherited narratives. An invitation to rethink, reclaim, and create new ways of telling our shared histories.

Moderator: Johnny Leya, Architect and Cofounder of Traumnovelle

Panelists: Prof. Paul Goodwin, UAL Chair of Contemporary Art & Urbanism, Director of TrAIN Elena Ndidi Akilo, Curator and Cultural manager, and Léonard Pongo, Visual artist

 

You must buy a ticket to attend

Opening Hours

Thu–Sat 11am–7pm
Sun 11am–6pm

Location:

Strand,
London WC2R 1LA

Copyright text and images the fair and the artist