Pattterns for (re)cognition

This publication documents the three editions of Patterns for (Re)cognition, an exhibition comprising various duos conceived by Vincent Meessen. It also offers new perspectives on the reception of this package that was intended to cast a contemporary eye on the abstract works that the Congolese artist, Tshela Tendu – better known until now by the name of Djilatendo – painted in the period between 1929 and 1932. Through this polemic approach to abstraction, which is perceived, beyond its formal aspects, as both an epistemic issue and a power matrix, Vincent Meessen is once again making a precise and informed “para-curatorial” gesture that casts light on a blind spot in colonial modernity. He also further investigates the boundaries of his practice and the terms of intelligibility in his collaborative work.