Cabinet des confidences populaires

“When you get to a village where the people dance on one foot, you have to dance with them on one foot." anonymous

For the 2019 Lubumbashi Biennale, Younes Baba-Ali converted a Congolese market stall into a public information desk. A place in the city for passers-by to have a conversation and anonymously express their opinions about Lubumbashi. Like an "official" civil servant, a young man jotted down people's comments. These registered notes and messages were then translated into Hindi, Arabic and Chinese and displayed in Lubumbashi airport as proverbs. Most of the texts were addressed to the droves of international investors and developers who descend upon "the Wild West that the Katanga region has become". At the airport, these people got a real piece of the mind of the local residents.

In Cabinet des confidences populaires, Younes Baba-Ali uses language and grassroots resistance to address themes like alienation and globalisation.