A solo exhibition by Congolese photographer Pamela Tulizo, developed through a research residency at VUB, ULB and BrIAS, opens at GC De Markten in Brussels on 8 October 2026.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel presents MABABU — Spirit of the Ancestors, a solo exhibition by Congolese photographer and visual artist Pamela Tulizo, running from 8 to 31 October 2026 at GC De Markten in Brussels. The exhibition is curated by Prof. Dr Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans.
Through 23 staged photographs, Tulizo reconstructs the histories of African women whose resistance to slavery, colonial domination and other systems of exploitation has largely been erased from the archive. The series brings together anonymous figures and named historical heroines — Kimpa Vita, Queen Nzinga, La Mulâtresse Solitude and Sanité Bélair — reconnecting their stories with the present and asking how such figures can once again serve as role models for younger generations.
A project rooted in research
MABABU grew out of a 2024 research residency at VUB/ULB/BrIAS (Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies) and a 2025 residency with VUB partner Enough Room for Space. As curator Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans writes in her accompanying essay, the series “responds to that erasure by placing women at the center of history: not as victims, nor as silent witnesses, but as active agents” who endured and resisted despite the devastating impact of slavery and colonial injustice.
The project evolved alongside the changing political situation around Goma, Tulizo’s home city and artistic base. Following the escalation of conflict in Eastern Congo in early 2025, the artist expanded the series to include works addressing lithium, diamonds and copper — drawing a line, as Ruchel-Stockmans notes, between historical systems of extraction and today’s mineral economy, technological development and the global energy transition. In these later images Tulizo turns the camera on herself, her body becoming the site where mineral wealth is shown to “violently inscribe itself.”
Tulizo’s practice draws on a wider lineage of photographic self-fashioning and historical reenactment — from Hippolyte Bayard and Claude Cahun to contemporary artists such as Samuel Fosso, Omar Victor Diop and Zanele Muholi — using staged portraiture to fill the gaps left by colonial and imperial archives.
Publication and contributors
The exhibition is accompanied by a trilingual publication (English, Dutch, French) published by HOPPER&FUCHS, featuring the photographic series, a conversation between Tulizo and Ruchel-Stockmans, the curatorial essay, and contributions from poet KlanDi Jr, writer Dalilla Hermans and artist Maarten Vanden Eynde.
MABABU — Spirit of the Ancestors is the second exhibition in Esprit des Ancêtres, an artistic project initiated by Géraldine Tobe that began in Brussels in 2022 with Tobe’s exhibition KALUNGA.
VUB is a partner and sponsor of the exhibition, alongside ULB, BrIAS, VUB’s Histories of Art, Architecture & Visual Culture research group, GC De Markten, Enough Room for Space, and other partner organisations.
Practical information
- Opening: Thursday 8 October 2026, 18:00–21:00
- Exhibition dates: 8–31 October 2026
- Location: GC De Markten, Oude Graanmarkt 5, 1000 Brussels
- Opening hours: Tuesday–Friday 10:00–20:00, Saturday–Sunday 12:00–18:00, closed Mondays
- Admission: Free
- Group visits & schools: Free guided tours can be booked via Justyna.Gajko.Berckmans@vub.be
Image: Pamela Tulizo, MABABU – Spirit of the Ancestors, Kahawa*, 2024 © Pamela Tulizo.*