Projecting Congo

Panel 1 (FR) – Pan-African Resistance in Congolese Perspectives: Quilombo, Feminism and Print Cultures

Political resistance has been at the heart of Pan-African thought. This panel explores archival, philosophical and artistic strategies of resistance and their re-actualization in the 21st century.

Panel 2 (EN/FR) – Congo and Pan-African Icons

The production of icons and pictures has been crucial in rallying the disparate geographies of Pan-Africanism. This panel examines how the still and moving image have produced, animated and altered political thought.

Panel 3 (EN/FR) – The Pan-African Overflows of Congolese Rumba

A pivotal heritage of Pan-Africanism long before it became officially recognized as such by UNESCO, Congolese Rumba is a music steeped in Black transnationalism. This panel examines how it has continued to resonate as a sonic Black political resistance and anthem of aliveness.

09:30-10:30: Welcome with coffee & Introduction

Kasia Redzisz, KANAL Artistic Director.
Sandrine Colard, KANAL Curator-at-large.

10.30-12.00: Panel 1 – Pan-African Resistance in Congolese Perspectives: Quilombo, Feminism and Print Cultures

Moderator: Sofia Dati, Visual & audiovisual arts programmer at Beursschouwburg

Presentations:

• Joseph K. Kasau, visual artist, filmmaker and author & Stéphane Kabila Kyowa, curator and researcher
• Zahia Rahmani, writer, art historian, and curator. Head of the program “Histoire de l’art mondialisée” (Globalized art history) at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), Paris
• Yala Kisukidi, Associate Professor in philosophy at Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis University

12.00-13.30: Lunch

13.30-15.00 : Panel 2 – Congo and Pan-African Icons

Moderator: Matthias De Groof is a professor in film studies and visual cultures at the University of Antwerp and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Amsterdam.

Presentations:

• Pedro Monaville, Associate Professor of African History, McGill University (Montreal, Canada)
• June Givanni, Director of the “June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive” (London, UK)
• Toma Muteba Luntumbue, artist, independent curator, and art history teacher at ERG and La Cambre

15.00-15.30: Short break

15.30-17.00: Panel 3 – The Pan-African Overflows of Congolese Rumba

Moderator: Bambi Ceuppens, senior researcher and a curator at Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, in the Department of Cultural anthropology & history.

Presentations:

• Kalaf Epalanga Ângelo, musician, writer, Spoken Word artist and member of the award-winning band Buraka Som Sistema
• Charlotte Grabli, Researcher at CNRS-CHS and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow
• Sammy Baloji, artist

17.00-17.30: Closing remarks

17.30-19.00: Projection of the film COCONUT HEAD GENERATION by Alain Kassanda

Length : 89 minutes

Every Thursday, a group of students from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria's oldest university, organises a film club, transforming a small lecture theatre into a political agora where they hone their views and develop a critical discourse. Coconut Head Generation, a derogatory expression for narrow-minded, brainless youth, takes on a whole new meaning when the students turn this stigma on its head to claim their freedom of thought.

19.15-19.45: Post-film discussion with Gia Abrassart and Alain Kassanda 

Gia Abrassart is an independent journalist and activist of decolonial culture, founder of the cultural space Café Congo.
Alain Kassanda is a Congolese French film maker and founder of Ajímatí Films.

19.45-21.30 : Drink