Belgium and Democratic Republic of the Congo / 2025 / 89mins / Documentary / French and Dutch

Nestled in Africa's largest rainforest lies one of the many graves of the West's efforts to control nations and nature - one of the world's largest tropical agricultural research centers. Located on the banks of the Congo River, the Yangambi INERA Research Station was a booming scientific center in its heyday. Today, it is an amalgam of jungle and ruin, where questions of knowledge, power over it, and access to it linger. L'arbre de l'authenticité recounts the stigma of ecological destruction that began at the time of colonisation through the voices of two emblematic scientists who worked at Yangambi between 1910 and 1950: Paul Panda Farnana and Abiron Beirnaert. Their stories embody the legacies of colonial modernity and trace the origins of today's environmental injustice. 

Sammy Baloji

Sammy Baloji, who was born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1978, graduated with a degree in letters from the University of Lubumbashi. He was interested in comics before turning to photography and video. Sammy Baloji won two awards at the 2007 Bamako Biennale, was a finalist for the 2009 Pictet Prize in Paris for his Mémoire series and took the Prince Claus Culture and Development Prize from the eponymous foundation for Mémoire. Sammy has participated in various international shows worldwide, from the first Photo Quai exhibition at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris to one at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren in 2009 and 2011, WIELS in Brussels and the Museum for African Art in New York. Baloji participated in the Lyon Biennale (2015), the Venice Biennale (2015), PhotoQuai festival at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris (2015), the Dakar Biennale (2016) and Documenta XIV (2017). He is a co-founder of the Picha Encounters, a photography and video biennale in Lubumbashi. Learn More