Serge Diakota Mabilama

Serge Diakota Mabilama is a Congolese visual artist who resides and practices in Kinshasa.

Through his artwork, he reflects on the social and political environment of his homeland, focusing on universal identity as a central theme. Diakota translates his visions onto everyday objects as witnesses of the daily human experience. Domestic objects enter a new discourse through Diakota’s creative process of mixing various techniques such as engraving, painting and collage. His multidisciplinary use of objects is reflective of his intrinsic borderless ideology and resides as an African modernist echo of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘ready mades’ and ‘anti-art’ philosophy.

Diakota’s work invites the viewer to reflect on transition, movement and migration as an attempt at creating a universal identity, while contributing to the discussion of moving Congolese art beyond geographical borders.