Kriss Munsya is a Congolese-born visual artist currently living in Vancouver, BC. He grew up in Brussels, Belgium in the ‘90s, an experience that has had a significant impact on his art practice.

(UN)PROMISED LAND is the combination of two bodies of work : Genetic Bomb and Killing da Vinci. Genetic Bomb was shot in 2022 in Congo (DRC); Killing da Vinci was shot in 2023 in Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico, New Orleans and Detroit. Genetic Bomb is about returning his homeland, and his experiences as a child of the diaspora. Killing da Vinci is a story about environmental racism in the Americas.

Although the visual codes and the locations of these two stories are different, they are deeply rooted in the same source: colonialism. One is a personal experience, where the other speaks about the collective aftermath.

(UN)PROMISED LAND, refers to a world wherein the systemic exploitation of people and land leads to a situation in which colonized peoples are limited in their use, experience, and enjoyment of their own land, and where the democratic promise of freedom has never been respected for the most marginalized.

Feature image: c. Kriss Munsya