Reception and screening at 4:30 pm in studio 5 of the Cité internationale des arts.
Performance begins at 5:40 p.m : walk from the Cité internationale des arts to the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville.
End of the performance at 7pm at the Cité internationale des arts.
Kimbalambala is a vernacular name in Lingala meaning used vehicle. In Africa, many of the vehicles are used and would no longer be able to drive in Europe - once their lives in Europe are over, they start a new African life again. The work is like a Sapiens robot because it is animated by its creator in order to interact with individuals in its path.
Created from recycled waste from automobile breakers in Paris, this work is made of car bodies, including their wires and disconnected electronics. It advances without headlights, mirrors, bumpers, driving licences, registration, comfort or alarms... in the image of the society and its misconduct.
"Kimbalambala" embodies the madness of men: what place will humans give to robots? Will pollution dominate the world? Thus Kimbalambala is also the story of a resistance struggle between man and the machine that surpasses him.
Precy Numbi produced this work to question the pollution and road accidents created by kimbalambala but also to question the path taken by the world at different levels: technological, ecological, political. Making this robotic giant was also a positive way to show that creating is always possible, even under miserable conditions. Moreover, by carrying 23 kilos of metal and plastic waste, the artist seeks to show a form of human resistance to the weight that the machine imposes on him today.
After a screening in the studio 5, Precy Numbi will guide visitors for a walk to the Hôtel de Ville, before returning to the Cité internationale des arts.
Precy Numbi (Democratic Republic of Congo) is in residence at the Cité internationale des arts through a dedicated residency program of the Institut français of the DRC.