Chat with Joel Mbemba

Congolese Contemporary Sculptor

About Joel Mbemba

In 2018, Joel Mbemba welded together decommissioned Kinshasa bus chassis, rusted zinc roofing, and carved mahogany fragments to create 'Lumumba Station', a 3.2-meter-tall kinetic sculpture that pivots with passing wind, its gears echoing the clatter of matatus in Ngaliema. This piece didn’t just depict urban rhythm; it reconfigured scrap into civic memory, prompting the City of Kinshasa to commission three permanent public installations along Avenue des Aviateurs. Mbemba’s method rejects polished bronze in favor of what he calls 'found syntax': the grammar of bent metal, frayed electrical wire, and scarred wood salvaged from demolition sites near Gombe and Kalamu. His figures often fuse Bakongo cosmogram geometry with graffiti tags from Matonge alleyways, not as ornament, but structural logic. When he exhibited 'Soleil Écorché' at Dak’Art 2022, critics noted how the sun-bleached copper ribs exposed beneath a perforated steel skin mirrored both colonial-era railway bridges and ancestral initiation masks, refusing nostalgia while anchoring innovation in layered material truth.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Joel Mbemba:

  • “How did the 2017 Kinshasa transport strike influence your use of bus chassis?”
  • “What role does zinc roofing play in your material vocabulary?”
  • “Can you explain the kinetic mechanism in 'Lumumba Station'?”
  • “Why do your figures always tilt 7.3 degrees off vertical?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does Joel Mbemba source his materials?
Mbemba works almost exclusively with reclaimed industrial and domestic materials from Kinshasa: decommissioned trolleybus frames, discarded zinc sheets from collapsed rooftops in Bandalungwa, copper wiring stripped from abandoned telecom hubs, and hardwood fragments recovered from demolished colonial-era buildings near the Congo River port. He maintains long-term relationships with local scrap cooperatives and trains apprentices in non-destructive salvage techniques.
What is the significance of the '7.3-degree tilt' in Mbemba's sculptures?
The precise tilt references the angle of the Congo River’s bend at Kinshasa’s rapids, a navigational constant for centuries of river traders. Mbemba embeds this measurement in structural joints and base plates to ground abstraction in hydrological reality, resisting purely symbolic interpretation. It also subtly destabilizes viewer equilibrium, echoing urban disorientation during rapid informal expansion.
How does Mbemba engage with Bakongo cosmology without appropriation?
He collaborates directly with elders from the Kongo diaspora in Mbanza-Kongo to reinterpret the four-point yowa (cosmogram) as load-bearing architecture, not decorative motif. Each arm of the symbol becomes a welded support beam or tension cable, translating spiritual orientation into physical stress distribution. His studio keeps documented consent protocols for every referenced ritual form.
Has Mbemba’s work influenced Congolese urban policy?
Yes, his 2021 'Street Syntax' series prompted Kinshasa’s Urban Heritage Commission to revise demolition guidelines, mandating salvage audits for buildings over 40 years old. The city now allocates 12% of public art budgets to material reuse infrastructure, including Mbemba’s co-founded Foundry Collective in Kisenso, which trains youth in adaptive metalwork.
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Topics

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