Rachel MALAIKA is a Congolese photographer who lives and works in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through photography, she explores themes of introspection and retrospection of her country’s historical past. She critically examines the apparatus of power in all its formal and informal forms. Her artistic approach highlights the human being at the heart of the command structure, analyzing both ancestral power structures and current institutions. She creates interactive juxtapositions of traditional and contemporary icons from various cultural areas, linguistic zones, and immemorial times, resulting in a discourse that harmonizes the cultural diversity of the Congolese peoples.
Rachel MALAIKA’s expertise reflects the history and memory of both material and immaterial culture passed down from ancestors. She has successfully presented photographic art that serves as an archive, navigating through the storms of immediate history while questioning the present-day historical narrative with a retrospective view of the past. Furthermore, the symbolic aspect of her philosophy advocates for an unfettered determination to develop new concepts and pragmatic approaches towards envisioning possibilities for reconstructing a healthy perspective on the institutions of power in the Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond.
