Edited with text by Sarah Suzuki. Text by David Adjaye, Chika Okeke-Agulu, et al.
Made from quotidian materials, Kingelez’s sculptures evoke visionary architectures
The sculptures of Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015) are imagined architectural propositions and improbable structures for a fairytale urban landscape. Comprised of paper, commercial packaging and the stuff of everyday life, his “extreme maquettes” transform these materials into fantastic visions that encompass civic buildings, public monuments and private pavilions. Born in the Belgian Congo, Kingelez gained international renown following his participation in the landmark 1989 exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle of the Parc de la Villette, and since that time, his work has been included in numerous global surveys and in several solo presentations. Published to accompany the first retrospective of his work, this volume traces the span of Kingelez’s three decade career, from never-before-exhibited early works to sculptures that launched his career in 1989 and the complex and multifaceted cities of later decades, bringing his rarely seen, distinctive oeuvre to international audiences. Featuring stunning new photography of his work, this serves as the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date.
Sarah Suzuki is Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
David Adjaye is a British architect. His most popular book is David Adjaye: Houses; Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding.
"Belle Hollandaise" (1991) is reproduced from 'Bodys Isek Kingelez.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Archinecht
Mackenzie Goldberg
"Growing up in his home city of Kinshasa, which grew exponentially with urban planning and infrastructure often unable to keep up, his vibrant and ambitious structures provided utopian alternatives to his own experience of urban life in his home city."
Apollo Magazine
"Fantastical architectural maquettes of public monuments and civic buildings envisage a utopian metropolis"
Artsy
Tess Thackara
This small-scale architecture is fabulous but orderly—the stuff of fantasy, but also an expression of the real world: of political ambitions, of a desire for harmony, of a vision for civic responsibility and a new postcolonial world order.
talkcontract
Hayley Arsenault
The self-trained artist is celebrated for creating “extreme maquettes” to explore questions around urban growth, economic inequity, and the rehabilitative power of architecture.
The New York Times
Roberta Smith
A euphoric exhibition-as-utopian-wonderland.
The New Yorker
Peter Schjeldahl
Imaginary buildings and whole cities in a perfectly integral melange of modern, postmodern, and entirley invented styles.
The Week
His festive, suis generis work, is sure to make fans of just everyone who sees it.
The Wall Street Journal
Peter Plagens
"Sparkling," "colorful," "intricate," and "inventive," are so inadequate in describing his work that one is tempted to drag out that overused compliment in contemporary arts commentary: "amazing."
The Paris Review
From early single-building sculptures to his futuristic late works, which incorporate increasingly unorthodox material.
Quartzy
Thu-Huong Ha
A utopian antidote to corruption and suffering, through whimsical, technicolored, and optimistic architecture.
PIN-UP
A neat, visually pleasing volume.
The New York Times
Roberta Smith
A euphoric exhibition as utopian wonderland, featuring his fantasy architectural models and cities — works strong in color, eccentric in shape, loaded with enthralling details and futuristic aura.
New York Times
Roberta Smith
The first comprehensive survey of this Congolese artist's work is a euphoric exhibition as utopian wonderland.
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This detail of Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez's mind-blowing four-foot by six-foot by ten-and-a-half-foot fantasy architectural model / sculpture / collage, "Kimbembele Ihunga" (1994), is reproduced from the undisputed staff favorite book from our Spring 2018 list, published to accompany the first comprehensive Kingelez retrospective in the United States, on view now through January 1, 2019, at MoMA. "I created these cities so there would be lasting peace, justice and universal freedom," the artist is quoted by essayist Chika Okeke-Agulu. "They will function like small secular states with their own political structure, and will not need policemen or an army." If only the real world could be more like Kingelez's. continue to blog
Whomever you are, whatever you do, if you want to be transported, spend some time with the work of Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015). "Kingelez anchored his work in the present and the recent past and in the fabric of the city around him, inspired equally by colonial architecture, the ambitious buildings of post-Independence Zaire, and the idioms that typify national building styles," MoMA curator Sarah Suzuki writes. "But his work was always future facing. In an era in which cities, including Kinshasa, were (and continue to be) under pressure to accommodate unprecedented rates of growth and the attendant challenges to civic life, Kingelez pointed a way forward offering models of beauty, harmony and functionality His work addressed the great challenges of the twentieth century—decolonization, health crises, the quest for nationhood and national identity—but it is infused with potential, both philosophical and formal. In his hands, new, cooperative ways of living and working were possible and the most mundane of materials could become technically precise, inventive and elegant objects. He declared himself 'a designer, an architect, a sculptor, engineer, artist.' His dazzling sculptures, manifestations of a future that perhaps only he could see, suggest one additional role: 'a visionary,' he said,' is someone who dreams of what doesn't yet exist.'" Featured work is "Kinshasa la Belle" (1991). continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 10.5 in. / 144 pgs / 90 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $35.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $47.5 ISBN: 9781633450547 PUBLISHER: The Museum of Modern Art, New York AVAILABLE: 5/22/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited with text by Sarah Suzuki. Text by David Adjaye, Chika Okeke-Agulu, et al.
Made from quotidian materials, Kingelez’s sculptures evoke visionary architectures
The sculptures of Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015) are imagined architectural propositions and improbable structures for a fairytale urban landscape. Comprised of paper, commercial packaging and the stuff of everyday life, his “extreme maquettes” transform these materials into fantastic visions that encompass civic buildings, public monuments and private pavilions. Born in the Belgian Congo, Kingelez gained international renown following his participation in the landmark 1989 exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle of the Parc de la Villette, and since that time, his work has been included in numerous global surveys and in several solo presentations. Published to accompany the first retrospective of his work, this volume traces the span of Kingelez’s three decade career, from never-before-exhibited early works to sculptures that launched his career in 1989 and the complex and multifaceted cities of later decades, bringing his rarely seen, distinctive oeuvre to international audiences. Featuring stunning new photography of his work, this serves as the most comprehensive volume on the artist to date.
Sarah Suzuki is Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
David Adjaye is a British architect. His most popular book is David Adjaye: Houses; Recycling, Reconfiguring, Rebuilding.
