A few words about your artistic journey

Initiator and Artistic Director of Laboratoi’art, my artistic practice is spread over various media combining photography, video, performance and installation by leading a reflection focused on issues related to my country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.

How long have you been an artist ?

I have been an artist for 10 years.

Why did you apply for this grant ? How will the grant support you ?

I applied for this grant to have opportunities to express myself and show my vision to the the general public. This grant supports me by offering me the possibility of having access to the tools and advantages which make it possible to make visible my ideas and thoughts.

What are your concrete artistic objectives after this residency ?

My main objective is to be able to observe an advance in the way of approaching the world as an artist, to broaden my vision and perspective in the field of contemporary art with the network that I will have to weave in "Creativity is life" .

What did you achieve throughout this creative residency ? What is the result (created work) ? Who was involved in the creation process ?

During my residency, I worked on a video project that combined photography, installations, and exhibitions.

How do you think these activities allow people to reflect on today’s world : regarding the COVID-19 crisis, and/or the shaping of the tomorrow ?

These activities, by their very nature, allowed the people who were able to access them to be informed about how we could rethink the ways our African cities function. With COVID-19 and especially its consequences, it was shown how important it is to be preventive in terms of establishing adequate infrastructures to avoid chaos of any kind

How did you feel during the residency ? And afterwards ?

It was an enormous joy to work on this project. It allowed me to work in conditions that I would always like to have. The work was 90% completed as I thought it would be. I encountered few difficulties in the process, such as : accessing and taking pictures of the commune of La Gombe, downtown Kinshasa (my target) was completely impossible due to the quarantine ...to do so I had to negotiate with the security services... The other difficulties were related to technical aspects : printing the mosaic poster which had to be printed in large was quite challenging as our printing facilities downtown could not technically do it. I had to print it card by card to arrange them afterwards into a 3.78 x 2.40m poster.
To tell the truth, I am satisfied with the result.