Jean-Pierre Bemba, presidential candidate, enters a stadium in central Kinshasa flanked by his bodyguards, July 2006 - Guy Tillim (2006)
Finally I get around to giving South African photographer Guy Tillim a mention – there are just a few weeks left to check out a selection of works from his Congo Democratic series, as part of the Tate Modern collection display ‘New Documentary Forms’. The series examines the 2006 multi-party presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which followed decades of civil war, and, unsurprisingly, became the hotly-contested focus of the electorate’s hopes and fears for the future. There’s no direct emphasis here on the violent episodes that marked the campaigns process; instead, Tillim leads us into the centre of the crowd and invites us to contemplate the emotion, anticipation and ambiguity that mark democratic political processes.
The other artists featured in this display are Luc Delahaye, Mitch Epstein, Boris Mikhailov and Akram Zaatari – further details here.
You can see more images from the Congo Democratic series here.
Show continues until 31st March.
Collection Displays, Level 5: New Documentary Forms
Tate Modern
Bankside, London
SE1 9TG
African Art in London 