Kelasi, Kasongo (Im)material, and A House Placed in Between: Poetry in the Comfortable Grey Zone screen in the cinema on Sunday, 10/23, at 4pm as part of Congo in Harlem 14.
KELASI
2021, 11 min, Fransix Tenda Lomba, Animation
Belgium French (with English subtitles)
The first animated film by visual artist Fransix Tenda Lomba is a kind of parcours through Congo’s historical education systems – and an analysis of the ideological function of the institution of the school. Using impressive collages and an always ironic commentary, the film – tellingly produced in Belgium – confronts its Western audience with their own ignorance about the region, challenging both their aesthetic and political thinking.
KASONGO (IM)MATERIAL
2022, 39 min, Noemie Arazi and Georges Senga, Documentary
Belgium, DR Congo Lingala, Swahili, and French (with English subtitles)
KASONGO (IM)MATERIEL explores the forgotten history of the Swahili-Arab in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their trajectory from oppressors to oppressed along with the local adoption of their culture and language mirror the tensions and ambivalence of history and heritage. Interweaving scenes from excavations with archival material and contemporary recordings, an archaeologist and a photographer engage with the affective impact of that which persists from the past into the present.
A HOUSE PLACED IN BETWEEN - POETRY IN THE COMFORTABLE GREY ZONE
2018, 37 min, Toshie Takeuchi, Experimental Documentary
Netherlands English and French (with English Subtitles)
An ambiguous notion of territory, property and home. In 2009, the embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo located in the Hague, Netherlands was suddenly closed. Behind the closure was a legal fight that been taking place between the Congolese government and a debt collector. As the fate of the embassy sat in limbo, the building it had once inhabited was squatted by a group of artists, just a few days before squatting was formally outlawed in the Netherlands. Soon it was transformed into a collective living house with music, art and communal events. A HOUSE PLACED IN BETWEEN - Poetry in the Comfortable Grey Zone was shot between 2011-2016, by filmmaker Toshie Takeuchi, who at the time was living and working out of the Congoelse embassy. The project derives from Takeuchi’s encounter with a group of Congolese protestors in the house, during the turbulent period of unrest following the presidential election in the Congo in 2011. The outcome of the presidential election overwhelmingly but questionably favoured Joseph Kabila who was re-elected as president. Therefore, the opposition protestors – supporters of Étienne Tshisekedi – came to occupy the embassy in order to protest the rigged election results. To their surprise, the embassy was already occupied by foreigners. Having this event as a reference point, Takeuchi embarks on an exploratory journey into the history of D.R Congo and the embassy building itself. The film attempts to show the process of this research, and both personal and collective contemplation about the “protected” artists living in this ambiguous grey zone. The film also questions on the colonial legacy that remains embedded in today’s political system and our perceptions.
Virtual Q&A w/Toshie Takeuchi to follow.
