Louvre Abu Dhabi I Kings and Queens of Africa featuring Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga I 29 January – 25 May 2025

Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power, featuring Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga’s striking painting ‘Oubliez le passé et vous perdez les deux yeux’.

In this work, Eddy Kamuanga draws inspiration from the endangered Mangbetu people, originally from Sudan and later settlers in the northeastern Kongo Kingdom in the 1500s. Caught between tradition and modernity, the Mangbetu represent a vanishing cultural heritage, embodying resilience and identity amid change.

Set against flat, muted grey backdrops, Kamuanga’s figures, dressed in vibrant, voluminous fabrics, convey deep emotions—anguish, despair, sympathy and concern. Enigmatic scripts swirl around them, heightening the tension between their cultural roots and modern society’s alienation and judgment.

Kings and Queens of Africa: Forms and Figures of Power, from 29 January to 25 May 2025 at Louvre Abu Dhabi

Image: Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Oubliez le passé et vous perdez les deux yeux, 2016. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 200 x 220 cm.