Sinzo Aanza

Sinzo Aanza is a Congolese writer, playwright, and visual artist. His transdisciplinary practice – novel, theatre, photography, installation, performance – turns fiction into a critical instrument: he questions the construction of narratives and their grip on reality. He is the author of Généalogie d’une banalité (2015), Que ta volonté soit Kin (2018), and Plaidoirie pour vendre le Congo (2023). His writing, both poetic and irreverent, probes the political situation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the constructed image of a country that “has always belonged to investors, foreign ones preferably.” The exploitation of natural resources, the representation of national identities and their distortions, and the construction of the image of the Congo since the colonial era are themes that nourish both his visual and literary works. His plays have been presented at the Récréâtrales (Ouagadougou), the Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe, and the Festival d’Automne à Paris, among others.

His solo exhibitions have been held at Galerie Imane Farès, Paris: Une archéologie de la nuit (2026); Le Mémorial improbable (2021); and Pertinences citoyennes (2018).

His work has recently been shown in several group exhibitions, notably the 36th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (2025), where he received the Audience Award, the Musée de l’Homme (Paris, 2025), the PinchukArtCentre as part of the Future Generation Art Prize (Kyiv, 2024), Magasins Généraux (Pantin, 2024), Kunsthaus Zürich (2023), Museum Rietberg (Zurich, 2023, 2019), the Lubumbashi Biennale (2022, 2019), the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine (Paris, 2020), WIELS (Brussels, 2019), the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles (2018), and the Lyon Biennale (2017). From 2020 to 2022, he was the director of the Yango Biennale (Kinshasa).

His works are held in the collections of Museum Rietberg (Zurich), KADIST (Paris), and the Frac Pays de la Loire (Carquefou).