Cultural Programme – Interview Eunice

Eunice, how did you come up with the idea of becoming an artist?

I was interested in art since I was a little kid because I was born into a family of artists. My father is an artist as are some members of my family. As a child I played with clay and made small figures. Later I just wanted to make art and that’s why I went to the Academy of Fine Arts

Arts in Kinshasa and got a degree in Sculpture.

Why sculpture?
Sculpture is like a vocation for me. I love sending a message to my society through my sculptures.
Was it difficult for you to study art?
Getting into the academy wasn’t difficult. You had to have a good high school diploma
and pass the entrance exam. But the difficulty is that sculpture is an art that
very few women in the Congo because they are typically male
domain applies. When I graduated from university I was the only woman in my class and I was about to let go of my feminine side and work hard like the male students in my class. And then mine was
Father Professor at the Art Academy of Kinshasa and that’s why I have
challenged me more and more to get better.
It was very hard because carving wood with the tools we have
use in Africa is not easy at all. At the university we have
with traditional tools such as adzes and axes for roughening and
worked to refine our wood carvings. We sometimes have debris from
broken bottles used for polishing. There were only two women in the class and there was stiff competition from the males
students. Making sculptures by welding was also not easy when I was a student because we didn’t have goggles and often had severe eye pain from not being able to protect our eyes properly when welding.

Why do you use waste for your art?
I’m sending a message to everyone to give meaning to item recycling. It’s also a way of bringing beauty to what is considered ugly. That’s why my sculptures are so big, because I like work that draws attention and conveys a message, even from afar.
I was inspired by a famous phrase by the great French chemist Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier, who says:
“Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.” This phrase inspires me to say that old objects are not lost, they must be salvaged and given a second life.

Do you have idols?
Yes, there are several French artists who inspire me a lot in the art of recycling because they also work with waste. But my biggest role models in sculpture are my father Sigismond Kamanda Ntumba Mulombo and the Congolese artist Freddy Tsimba.

Are you also planning a career as an artist in Germany?
Yes, in any case. I would love to practice my art in Germany, take part in major exhibitions, art festivals and of course be invited to artist academies. In the Congo I sculpted every day. But in Germany I don’t have enough space to weld and work with wood. This is my greatest sorrow!

Thank you Eunice Kamanda, good luck with your plans!