What stories do the intricate textiles and patterns of the Bakuba tell? How do geometry, symbolism, and craftsmanship come together? Join this exclusive curator’s tour for fascinating insights into the cultural significance and aesthetics of this exceptional art form from present-day Congo.

This special exhibition at the MARKK presents a selection of outstanding works from the former Kuba Kingdom in the Kasai region of today’s Democratic Republic of Congo, with a particular focus on intricate textile works made from raffia palm fibers. This collection, which has been rarely exhibited and remains largely unstudied, is critically examined and recontextualized in the exhibition. The objects were acquired by the German Africanist Leo Frobenius during his first African research and collecting expedition from 1904 to 1906 in the colonial Congo Free State, then under the possession of the Belgian king.

Through encounters on-site, initiated and recorded specifically for this exhibition, the works are reconnected with local communities and collective memory. In dialogue with contemporary textile works by the artist cooperative Futur-Velours.com and a graphic novel created for the project by Dr. Sixte Kakinda, the exhibition reflects on historical artistic production during the Belgian colonial era and offers new insights into its contemporary reception in Congo.