Opening Seminar

IHA Research Centre, June 2012

Congolese and international speakers gathered at the plantation to discuss the history of the plantation, gentrification , and the possibilities for art to deal meaningfully with the conditions of its own existence, as well as the future direction of IHA.

For two days, two-hundred people from the local community participated in a conference with art historian T. J. Demos, philosopher Marcus Steinweg, activist René Ngongo, architect Eyal Weizman, economist Jérome Mumbanza, curator Nina Möntmann, anthropologist Katrien Pype, and artist Emmanuel Botalatala. Urban theorist Richard Florida delivered the keynote lecture via satellite.

The Opening Seminar was a co-production with the 7th Berlin Biennial.

Excerpts from presentations