Fwd: Film Screening by artist Sammy Baloji The Tree of Authenticity 28 October FACT Liverpool

[Jackie Pease]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Carine Harmand <Carine....@tate.org.uk>
Date: Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Subject: Film Screening by artist Sammy Baloji The Tree of Authenticity 28 October FACT Liverpool
To:

Dear all,

 

Please join us on October 28th for a screening of artist Sammy Baloji’s new film The Tree of Authenticity , followed by a Q&A with the artist.

Nestled in Africa's largest rainforest lies one of the many graves of the West's efforts to control nations and nature - one of the world's largest tropical agricultural research centers. Located on the banks of the Congo River, the Yangambi INERA Research Station was a booming scientific center in its heyday. Today, it is an amalgam of jungle and ruin, where questions of knowledge, power over it, and access to it linger.

The Tree of Authenticity (2025). Photography courtesy of Twenty Nine Studio & Production.

The Tree of Authenticity recounts the stigma of ecological destruction that began at the time of colonisation through the voices of two emblematic scientists who worked at Yangambi between 1910 and 1950: Paul Panda Farnana and Abiron Beirnaert. Their stories embody the legacies of colonial modernity and trace the origins of today's environmental injustice.

The artist Sammy Baloji (b. 1978, Lubumbashi, DR Congo) lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels. Since 2005 he has been exploring the memory and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo. His work is an ongoing investigation into the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the Katanga region, as well as questioning the impact of Belgian colonisation. His critical view of contemporary societies serves as a warning of the ways in which cultural clichés continue to shape collective memory, allowing social and political power games to continue to dictate human behaviour.

This film screening is organised by Tate Liverpool, as part of the programme Congo-Liverpool Routes, developed with the International Slavery Museum.

Book your tickets here:

https://www.fact.co.uk/film/the-tree-of-authenticity

 

 

Please share with anyone else who might be interested.

For the people who have attended the Liverpool-Congo workshops we have free tickets available, please email me directly if you would like one.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you,

Kind regards,

Carine

Carine Harmand (she/her)
Curator, Tate Liverpool

Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4BB
M +44 (0) 774 101 4548

 

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