The filmmaker Renaud Barret, who directed several documentaries shot in Kinshasa, will open this meeting on Kinsasha’s contemporary performance scene with his film Système K (2018, 94’): ‘‘In the midst of the indescribable social and political chaos of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a vibrant contemporary art scene is creating, shouting its anger and demanding recognition. Despite harassment by the authorities and personal difficulties faced by the artists, the movement is taking to the streets and nothing can stop it!’’
In dialogue with Aline Pighin (art historian at CESSMA, Paris Diderot University, France), Renaud Barret will discuss the history of this performance scene and its origins. Artist Eric Androa Mindre Kolo will perform Pas peur de mourir (2019, 30’).
Seminar of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales presented by Christine Douxami, Sarah Fila-Bakabadio, Katja Gentric, Dominique Malaquais and Julie Peghini (with the support of the Ecole Universitaire de Recherche ARTEC and a government grant from the National Research Agency under the Investissements d’avenir programme ANR-17-EURE-0008) in the context of a seminar series titled Arts in Africa and the Diasporas: practices, knowledge, mobility.
In parallel, the international conference Africa(s): Urban utopias, performative utopias will be held from June 4 to 6, 2020 at the Cité internationale des arts and at the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine.