During our week 5 class and visit to the Fowler Museum, I found interest in the other exhibits of the museum, so I thought it would be exciting to expand on my previous thoughts and get more information on them. For my first blog I wrote about the Almighty God exhibit, but another amazing exhibit in the Fowler was the “Imaginary Trip”, by Congolese artist Gosette Lubondo. Gosette is a young photographer whose interests lie in the abandoned areas, such as buildings. These abandoned places show a past time, and the effects time has on the world. She is heavily inspired by everything in the world around her and how the past, present, and future versions of the world appear, with iLabDesign stating it as observing “the continuous evolution of life” (iLabDesign). Her breakthrough project is exactly this one, Imaginary Trip.
Imaginary Trip takes place in an abandoned train in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with many different figures appearing in the works in different styles, going in different directions, and either appearing fully there or in an almost ghostly state. It shows people almost traveling through time, all on a different journey, or from past journeys that will never happen again. The train, and all places around the world, have had so many visitors, events, and occurrences, with this train no longer able to make more memories, yet still has so many experiences tied to it from before. No matter the fact that no more physical journeys can occur, the journey of life will never end. In a way it is very somber, the fact that people have come and gone, and will continue to come and go, but the world goes on living and, for the most part, remembering those who have gone. In many ways, those who have gone, are able to live through those still alive, staying in the memories but also watching over friends and family, as the journey goes on and on, generation after generation.
https://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/gosette-lubondo/
This exhibit and focus on time also expands on to the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo and its people. In 1885 the DRC was colonized by Belgium and remained under Belgian control until 1960 (National Geographic). Belgian rule was extremely brutal, massacring large portions of the population and forcing developments to steal from and build up Congo. These wounds of the past continue to linger through buildings and objects like this train. Physical decaying reminders of the horrific past, those who died in the time, and the influence these wounds continue to have on the children of the future. Pain persists, but again, the Earth continues to turn, and people continue to go on with their lives, hoping to learn from previous mistakes, and moreover hoping perpetrators of atrocities to remember what they have done. This story and art can be applied to so many regions of the world, spanning the entirety of history, as well as the present, and likely the future, a sad reality yet one to focus on and stay educated on.
https://www.ilab-design.africa/en/artist/gosette-lubondo/
Sources:
https://www.ilab-design.africa/en/artist/gosette-lubondo/
https://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/gosette-lubondo/
https://galerie-angalia.com/en/dr-congo-visual-artists/gosette-lubondo/
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/belgian-king-establishes-congo-free-state