Patterns for (Re)cognition


Volume 2 of Vincent Meessen‘s publication project Prospectus


This publication documents the three editions of Patterns for (Re)cognition, an exhibition comprising various duos with Tshela Tendu conceived by Vincent Meessen: at KIOSK (Ghent, 2013), Kunsthalle Basel (2015), and BOZAR (Brussels, 2017). It also offers new perspectives on the reception of this assemblage 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.


The book brings together for the first time all of Tshela Tendu’s geometric abstractions, most of which are completely unknown to the public. Their presentation is discussed in a series of dialogues that Vincent Meessen conducts with artist and curator Toma Muteba Luntumbue, publisher Guy Jungblut, curator Elena Filipovic, ethnohistorian Jan Vansina, and art historian Yasmine Van Pee.


Through a polemic approach to abstraction, which is perceived, beyond its formal aspects, as both an epistemic issue and a power matrix, Vincent Meessen proposes a ‘para-curatorial’ operation that casts light on a blind spot in colonial modernity.


The book was first presented featuring a round table discussion on 8 September 2017, with Morad Montazami discussing the themes broached in the exhibition and publication, together with Vincent Meessen, Toma Muteba Luntumbue, Yasmine Van Pee, researcher-curator Bambi Ceuppens and art historian Kathrin Langenohl.


Chief Editor: Vincent Meessen
Copyediting: Paul Roberts, Richard Pitwood
Translation Fr-En: Duncan Brown
Graphic design: Speculoos (Sophie Boiron, Daphné Clavel and Pierre Huyghebaert)


Archival documents from Collections Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels; Private collection, Courtesy Collection MAGNIN-A, Paris; Collection MAGNIN-A, Paris; Collection Pierre Loos, Brussels; Collection Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren; CINEMATEK, Royal Film Archive if Belgium, Brussels; Collection Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth; Collection Lucien Bilinelli, Brussels/Milano; Collection Marc Leo Felix, Brussels
Photography: Tom Callemin, Philippe De Gobert, Philipp Hänger, Vincent Meessen, André Morin


Publishing: Snoeck Publishers & BOZAR BOOKS with the support of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and a/r (art & recherche)
Printing: Graphius, Ghent

English, 192 pages, 132 illustrations, colour, hardcover, 2017


© 2017 Vincent Meessen, Snoeck Publishers and Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BOZAR)
ISBN: 9789461614148
D/2017/0012/66


€35 – order online