Luc Tuymans: Mwana Kitoko

Published on the occasion of the 2000 exhibition at David Zwirner in New York, this catalogue documents Luc Tuymans’s fourth solo show at the gallery. After its showing in New York, the artist expanded this body of work to exhibit at the Belgium Pavilion of the 2001 Venice Biennale, where he was chosen to represent his country. Mwana Kitoko examines the colonial history of Belgium, by focusing on the colonization of Zaire, previously known as the Belgian Congo. In his 1999 book entitled De moord op Lumumba (The death of Lumumba), Ludo de Witte makes the allegation that various institutions, including the Belgian government, were responsible for the 1961 murder of the Congo’s first legally elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, shortly after gaining independence. As a result of this publication, the “Lumumba Commission” was set up to investigate the matter further. The exhibition’s title refers to the derogatory nickname Mwana Kitoko, i.e. beautiful boy, which was given to Belgian’s