A world in an earth,

The reverse applies,

An earth within a world,

A world of fears and usurpations,

A world of feats and restarts,

A world of trials and errors,

A world of traces and memories,

Where exploration and exploitation do not show their course,

Conquests and discoveries make its rhythm,

It is its own raw material,

The new economic colonisation in which subjects are autonomous appears,

The migrant by his initiative takes the path of the slave,

Taking the place of the political colonisation that consolidated the notion of the state,

All of this has been achieved through theories of conquest that change their face in time and space,

It is in this configuration of a world of extremes that Jean's machines were born,

An algorithmic resistance that attempts to reconcile a world devoid of transverse,

North and South,

East and West,

The rich and the poor,

Black, white, red, yellow and others,

The providers and the dependents,

As if this were not enough,

Disasters, pandemics are added to the panel for some and the prisms of political administration for others,

Mineral deposits continuing their geological transformation,

For exploitation in a trap between use and pollution,

However, Jean tries to confront the world with its reality in order to be able to correctly postulate his Future based on his present and his past.

On trade off becomes a longitude that allows horizontal links to scrutinize the question of relational in the flows of the world, defining the different roles,

The ores of the Congo versus the industries of the West,

Cultures, civilizations, educations,

Precariousness versus opulence, insurance versus worry,

To each his slice.

The OTO project is a collective project that involves artists from different continents and that stands the test of time, that adapts its form according to the moment, that can encompass and let itself be encompassed at times. Exhibitions and group residencies and expeditions demonstrate this. As a participating artist of this project, I ask the question of to what extent the mining achievements of colonisation can serve as a tool for looking at the global future and essentially on development in the countries of the South. Infrastructure and town planning are suffering cruelly as the mines continue and have today taken the form of Lithium which is an energy mineral of the future. How to isolate the Molecule from mentality? Since the start of the On-Trade-Off project, I have been drawn in by the possibility of thinking about ecology, economy, globalisation and ultimately colonisation and exploitation of resources through an international exchange of research and knowledge about these subjects. The complexity of it doesn't get trivialized or illustrated but is used as a force and ever changing thinking process /methodology in the way the project and collaboration is structured and executed.

Jean Katambayi Mukendi is an artist and scientist who lives and works in Lubumbashi (DRC). He has also studied and is passionate about technology, mechanics, geometry and electricity, which form a foundation for his artistic approaches. He creates fragile and complex installations animated by sophisticated electrical mechanisms. His technological discoveries are part of a search for solutions to the social problems of current Congolese society. His main source of inspiration is the permanent questioning of our society, which seems dichotomous.

M13,  Jean Katambayi, work in progress
M13 is a huge human size bolt with 13 sides instead of the common 6 sides, rendering it impossible to use with existing tools. The initial idea came from a visit to the former cassiterite (tin) mining site of Manono in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where huge metal remnants of machines are spread randomly throughout the city and the surrounding territory. Too heavy to move, and without any practical use, they remain there as permanent reminders of the mineral extraction in colonial times. The trees that grow through the metal objects indicate the age of this ‘open-air museum’ of colonial remnants. It is a total and absolute mismatch with the current needs of the local population that is mirrored in the fact that the bolt does not fit anywhere. M13 is full of numerological references, M representing both the size standard for bolts and Manono itself, and is at the same time the 13th letter in the alphabet. The corresponding measurements of the bolt follow the fibonacci code ad infinitum, grouped in clusters of three.

The Concentrator, Jean Katambayi, work in progress

Pursuing the direction given by his M13, Jean Katambayi challenges the detrimental effects of mining on local populations by imagining how to appropriate the technological potential of industrial tools, and feed it into future urbanism. He will produce a series of hand-made industrial drawings that enter into dialogue with a mixed-media installation. Jean’s contribution includes low-tech-sculptures in cardboard drawn from algorithms and calculations of electric flows, a large format book, which articulates engineering and speculation and a series of drawings of the bolt sculpture, foiling perspective.