J’aime RD Congo
LUBUMBASHI
J’aime RD Congo (2023)
35 x 40 cm
Polypropylene woven shopping bag ‘taux du jour’.
In December 2023, Lafleur & Bogaert traveled to Lubumbashi at the invitation of Sammy Baloji—an award-winning artist central to DR Congo’s contemporary art scene. Their visit marked the start of preparations for the eighth Biennale de Lubumbashi.
During their stay, they were struck by the ubiquity of woven polypropylene shopping bags— popularly known as taux du jour—and chose these as the basis for a new project, presented during the Biennale’s opening weeks in October 2024.
J'aime la Biennale de Lubumbashi (2024)
35 x 40 cm – 13 x 15 inches
Hand-painted tote bags
Lafleur & Bogaert reimagined the iconic “J’aime RD Congo” bags by turning them inside out and hand-painting new messages on them. These transformed bags became the official tote bags of the Biennale de Lubumbashi. Each bag carries, on one side, a slogan collected from street interviews, and on the other, the inscription “Biennale de Lubumbashi,” establishing a direct connection between contemporary art and everyday life.
The 2024 edition of the Biennale was dedicated to the philosophy of the recently deceased thinker Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, whose intellectual legacy served as a major inspiration for this edition. As a tribute to his legacy, Lafleur & Bogaert inscribed the name “Mudimbe” on the first prototypes of the tote bag.
J'aime Mudimbe(2024) 35 x 40 cm – 13 x 15 inches
Hand-painted tote bags
In collaboration with the collective Ateliers Picha, organizers of the Biennale, the duo hand-produced around a hundred unique bags on-site in Lubumbashi. These hybrid objects — both artworks and functional bags — now circulate through the streets as visible artistic emissaries of the Biennale.
A monumental textile collage measuring 4 by 2.5 meters, made from the same materials, became one of the iconic works of this edition of the Biennale de Lubumbashi.
J’aime RD Congo (2024)
Installation view Lubumbashi Biennale
250 x 400 cm
Hand-set letters on shopping bags sewn together with copper thread.
J’aime RD Congo
THE GRAND TOUR
Since July 2025, Lafleur & Bogaert have been unfolding “J’aime RD Congo” as a traveling project across the country.
KOLWEZI
After its launch in Lubumbashi, the first stop was the Sauti ya Macho Art Festival and the National Museum of Kolwezi. There, in a major mining center known for copper, cobalt, and uranium extraction, the duo created a 15-meter banner mounted on a hand-cranked device—functioning like a horizontal stop-motion film of new Kolwezi-inspired “J’aime” slogans.
J’aime BELGIQUE – INGA – KOLWEZI (2025)
Installation view National Museum of Kolwezi, DR Congo
51 x 65 cm – 20 x 25 inches
Hand-set letters on shopping bags sewn together with copper thread.
J’aime KOLWEZI (2025)
Installation view National Museum of Kolwezi, DR Congo
51 x 65 cm – 20 x 25 inches
Hand-set letters on shopping bags sewn together with copper thread.
J’aime KOLWEZI (2025)
Installation view Sauti ya Macho Festival in Kolwezi, DR Congo
51 x 180 cm – 20 x 70 inches
Hand-set letters on shopping bags sewn together with copper thread.
J’aime KOLWEZI (2025)
Installation view
51 x 180 cm – 20 x 70 inches
Hand-set letters on shopping bags sewn together with copper thread.
MBUJI-MAYI
J’aime MBUJI-MAYI (2025)
Installation view, test set-up
6.8 meters tall × 45 cm diameter
Hand-painted letters on woven shopping bags, sewn together in a tubular form and mounted on an industrial “tube guy” fan.
In December 2025, the artists bring the project to Mbuji-Mayi, capital of Kasai-Oriental and the country’s main hub for diamond mining. For the Centre Culturel BUKENKA, they are creating a new in situ work, beginning with personalized shopping bags carrying phrases like “J’aime Mbuji-Mayi” and “J’aime Diamant” both in French and in the local language, Tshiluba.
Seeking to move beyond the horizontal forms of their earlier chapters, Lafleur & Bogaert drew inspiration from “tube guys”—inflatable dancing figures powered by fans. For Mbuji-Mayi, the tube guys are entirely handmade using the famous taux du jour bags, transforming a ubiquitous local object into a vibrant, large-scale kinetic sculpture.
Tube guys trace their origins to Caribian artist Peter Minshall, whose inflatable dancing figures debuted internationally at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. For Mbuji-Mayi, Lafleur & Bogaert amplify the camp aesthetic by blowing diamond dust through the tube.
The current Mbuji-Mayi tube guy stands 6.8 meters tall, 45 centimeters in diameter, and contains a multicolored LED lighting system that can be controlled remotely.
J’aime RD Congo
INTERNATIONAL
J’aime RD Congo (2025)
Installation view Frosch & Co gallery in New York City.
J’aime RD Congo (2025)
Installation view Galerie Imane Farès in Paris, France.