#Congolese multimedia

[joramjojo]

FUTURE VILLE DE BANDUNDU, RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO

Concept oyo ya ville congolaise ya Bandundu ezali vision oyo naza nango pona développement urbain ya République démocratique du Congo, concept oyo ekosalelama na ba parties misusu ya RDC. Concept ville oyo ya Bandundu eza na ba intérieurs lokola ba magasins, ba stades, ba écoles, ba restaurants, ba hôpitaux, ba commissariat ya police et ainsi de suite. Mituka nionso na ba avions eza en ordre ya…

[panicinthestudio]

In 'Congo Tales,' a visual reimagining of local folklore, July 27, 2019

"Congo Tales" is a new multimedia project that explores the environment, culture and stories of the people of the Congo Basin. The series highlights the mythical histories of the Congolese through photography and film as a counter-narrative to the one-note story often associated with the Republic of the Congo. NewsHour Weekend's Ivette Feliciano reports.

PBS NewsHour

[intheruinsofparadise2021]

still from videography by Stuff Studio

In the Ruins of Paradise

is a multimedia installation presented on November 19th, 2021 - meditating on Blackness and Indigeneity and our relationship to the landscape, healing traditions, climate change

it was exhibited at the Frozen River Film Festival office at 164 E 3rd St. Winona, MN.

music by Elizabeth Oness/ videography by Stuff Studio (and Theresa Williams-Carpenter)/ text from 'The Future of Love' by Mai'a Williams/ puppetry by Robert Armstrong

(the text was from - ‘The Future of Love’ - a chapbook I published, with the support of Springboard for the Arts’ Artists Respond: Equitable Rural Futures, in October of 2021) 

-

this is a digital archive/exploration of the text and installation

below you will find: 

collective poems in response to prompts from the text

suggested playlist, 

excerpts from the text, 

video stills, 

this is in a blog format and is 2 pages...

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Mai’a is an interdisciplinary artist who primarily works in sculpture, performance, installation, poetry and prose. Their studio, curatorial and research-based practice weaves together their identity as a queer Muslim and a daughter of First Nations and Black American lineages, as well as their experience as a midwife and a mother.  Their work is a response to revolutionary mothering, global Black death, their African and First Nations ancestry and joy. It is a reflection of living and working with Egyptian, Palestinian, Congolese, and Central American Indigenous mothers in resistance communities for more than 15 years. 

https://maiawilliams.tumblr.com/

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Mai’a Williams is a fiscal year 2021 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

[tedfashionski]

ANIFA HANIFA (ANTIFA :)

(?)

  The past two weeks I’ve had a tonsil/sinus thing. I had trouble eating or opening my jaw, couldn’t sleep, was having bizarre dreams about the George Floyd protests and Anifa’s virtual collection kept cropping up in that exhausted head space. There’s been a lot of talk about how it was ‘a first’ or something. I hate talk of ‘firsts’, it’s not accurate, it’s not how culture works. Things build upon other similar things and shit develops collectively. That said, this was a real fucking moment and the work is strong. This is a victory in the fight against fashion’s outdated hierarchy and gatekeeping. This is a viral success that signalled the turn away from the fashion capitals and the increasingly void mainstream fashion media. Black twitter forced the BS press to acknowledge that this was a real decentralised fashion development that they had nothing to do with creating, an independent designer building up her vision and her fashion language and it really landed. I learnt something from this collection, and the spinelessness of vogue etc means her work isn’t being imaginatively analysed, so I’m going to attempt that here.

Anifa Mvuemba lives in Maryland and is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This collection was a while in the planning (7 months) and was intended to be a presentation at New York Fashion Week, but with covid cancellations, Mvuemba pushed ahead and decided to present her work when it felt ready and right, on the 22nd May. As we’ve all been reminded wrt this, this technology has been bubbling away for a little while now, but with the ‘Pink Label Congo’ collection, we’re seeing a notable combination of factors. A new recipe. The clothes are a combination of fashion forward contemporary and personal expression on the designer’s part, and mixed in is a message about the social impact of mining for smartphone supplies (cobalt) on the people of the Congo. And while her label, Hanifa, has been healthily developing since its inception, the viral success of this small collection is a really encouraging example of how digital fashion has the power to cut out legacy tastemakers and traditional media and expand fashion’s storytelling power.

 The black background worked with the ghostly, fuller figured models to focus attention in quite a cold way; it reminded me of the chilling ‘dinner’ scenes in ‘Under the Skin’. If you haven’t seen it, go do so (if you like scary, which I assume you do if you’re reading this). ScarJo is so cold and freaky in that and the overall tone is one of brutal over-consumption, a chilly feast of otherness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE56AUIDkag IDK how goth Anifa was seeing her own work as, but for me (someone who’ll see the dark side of anyythhinnng), the pure, cold setting was a twisted contrast with the one or two promo pics with full body/background, virtually produced, and with the soundscape that felt like colour and rhythm punching through from outside, with life and grit. Thw mix created a vibe that balanced on the edge between uplift and a hard stare at a brutalising reality, and the strength and life of ignored women shaped by a world unreal in its cruelty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXYBxXjj8cw Each outfit was communicating something more than pure flattery or glamour, even though these escapist aspects were present. The bodies looked amazing and like real people with total lives , even though we couldn’t see them. It’s hard to express how much we need fashion that understands its own power to communicate and entrance us towards a new light. The way the clothes moved on the absent bodies, while, sometimes feeling too virtual, too bouncy in the way that motion graphics are trending rn, was energising. The clothes were speaking to us directly, and demonstrating the power of clothes to build identity and go beyond mere window-dressing. To get people to engage with your story and vision. This was surface-as-content in a way. An interior exposure, (heartistry? :D).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjnFZtX_-V4 The designer states of her work: “My hope is that this collection inspires all women to stand tall in their power and like the Democratic Republic of Congo, to use their history, whether pretty or painful—to redesign their future. My country, the land of Congo, is ripe with an abundance of natural resources—the greatest of which are its people—its women.”

 The photographic prints really stood out for me. They felt like personal snapshots, like someone saying, ‘this is my home, my body, my vision, this matters to me, to us’. The Mái pieces worked the pattern and photo print to enliven a flat plane through fabric shaping. The copywriting functioned as an authentic part of her creative vision, and built another layer on the multimedia project: ‘The clouds in the Congolese skies are unforgettable. Mái Mini skirt accentuates the length of your legs. The ruching was intentionally placed to add the texture of the land. Accompanied with a classic white top, our Mái Mini will make a legendary statement to your wardrobe and mirror the freshness of the wind.’. IDK about you, but I like the idea of mini skirts that can make my world feel wide open and richer. My favourite look was the Mái maxi dress, which is described online thusly:

‘The Congo River - where the Atlantic Ocean kisses the land. This floor length maxi gown embodies the gentle confidence of the Congolese people. The off centered collar elegantly draws eyes to your neckline. As Mai’s silk georgette flows over your hips, the subtle placement of the green grassy hills call out your power within. This feminine design was created to flow like the rivers of Congo.’

 Fashion designers are so often wishing for recognition of the storytelling in their work, and this is so often pushed to one side by media that only gives a fuck about product. It is worth noting this collection has been a commercial success from a commercial designer, but its value lies in that it reaches beyond a strict customer base in a way that doesn’t reduce the enthusiasm of fashion fans down to ‘potential customer’. She used her viral moment to emphasize this, and said “I want these pieces to tell a story of meaning. I want them to remind us to be intentional about what we create. Not for clout or for Instagram likes, but for the sake of meaning what we say by storytelling through our designs.” Mvuemba also prioritises the emotive aspect of her work, as a designer who’s just a human being, not a walking brand, and seeing her quotes about worrying about timing of fashion in the covid era was relatable. We’re all worrying whether you can sensitively create fashion in a time when people are talking about hardcore material conditions, about unemployment and the economy and police brutality. I hope I’m being clear when I say this is a time to talk MORE about fashion, in a true way that doesn’t eliminate harsh reality, that makes it more accessible, more enthralling, less draining. I honestly believe this collection is a perfect example of how we can re-organise fashion culture so that its strengths contribute to the revolutionary project, which needs to keep its momentum. Fashion is many things: a way of keeping and organising time, a way of taking a breather, a way of bringing more delight into real life, a way to keep things spicy; ultimately, what I’m arguing is if leftists want people to engage with the hard work of radical change over time, they need fashion, because it aids our engagement with the world and can prevent burnout, by guiding us in rhythmic, energising, comprehensible change. I hope that makes sense.

[technouk]

The month's best mixes: Nkisi, Aleksi Perälä and silken Berlin memories

The month’s best mixes: Nkisi, Aleksi Perälä and silken Berlin memories

Belgian techno, Milanese eccentricity, Finnish ambience and silken Berlin sounds make up January’s best releases – as well as a utopian playlist platform

RA.660: Nkisi

Alongside artists such as Angel Ho and Chino Amobi, Belgian-Congolese producer Nkisi is part of NON, a politically-minded collective and record label dedicated to multimedia art and music by artists of the African diaspora.…

[musicmapglobal]

NON Worldwide's Nkisi on music as a sonic tool

SHAPE Platform is a pan-European initiative designed to give the underground music scene exposure on its own terms. The SHAPE Class of 2018 is as exciting as you’d imagine, which is why we’re showcasing picks from this year’s selection every Friday…

This week’s highlighted artist is… sonic activist Nkisi, one of the founders of the NON Worldwide collective, a multimedia project aiming to empower artists from Africa and the African diaspora…

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE by NKISI

How has NON Worldwide changed since its inception?

Nkisi: NON Worldwide has grown organically, to have more experience, for me, it has been a journey of learning and collective improvisations. NON Worldwide has made me more committed to music as a medium, music has such amazing ways; how you can affect, use references, reach and work outside of homogeneous symbolic institutions. Music as sonic tools to use, and exchange, through decoding and coding. We are releasing our second compilation; I am very excited about this.

NON is self-described as being an exercise in non-verbal dialogue – what were the first records or sounds that spoke to you in a way that language couldn’t?

For me personally, with NON, we refuse, we experiment outside of the norm in any way possible. Exorcising the language of domination is our motto. I find so much refuge in this unknown realm of music, rhythms and sounds. I love how music allows for movements of energy. I have a special bond with dance music as I am also interested in what happens when we use music to dance. What happens when you sync to a new rhythm… I always had a strong connection with sound, it has always triggered my memory and time/space perceptions in very emotional ways. My earliest memories of music that affected me would probably be the Congolese guitar riff.

DJ KITOKO VOL.2 by NKISI

You release a lot of (great) material, relatively regularly – is making music something that comes easy to you or do you struggle with getting the ‘finished’ product?

I like the idea of being active and acting on things.

I am very blessed and thankful that people enjoy my music, I have a lot to process. And I really enjoy making music as a practice; it helps me understand the universe, it makes it possible in a way to reflect and ask questions (to the universe). Those answers materialise in the tracks…

Last year you unveiled The Dark Orchestra performance project. For those that couldn’t make the show, what did the audience experience, and have you any plans to tour that particular project further?

The Dark Orchestra has been an ongoing project of mine. It started as a mix, then it was part of THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT (our first NON-production at CTM 2017), most recently it grew into a live set I did for AND festival in a cave somewhere in the north of the UK. I have been playing versions of these sets since then. I use some systems of thought present in Ancient Kongo Cosmology and experiment with improvisation, rhythmic prediction and rhythmic archetypes… I think the audience enjoyed it, and it’s great for dancing. I will be touring this set this year.

You were raised in Belgium and are currently based in London, in interviews you’ve discussed aspects of Congolese culture, would you describe yourself as a transnational artist, and how do you think this plurality of inspirations affects your work?

In a way it feels natural to me, as all these fragments of cultures are part of me. It is in the midst of all these ‘contradictions’ and pulling-pushing that I find inspiration and answers. Creation for me is a way to shuffle the data, so any step away from predetermined and status quo assumptions are a step in the direction I wander towards.

Where are you looking forward to performing this year, or where would you love to perform?

I am looking forward to every single show, and I would love to perform wherever the music brings me. Also excited to release more music this year.

Designed and managed by a handful of the best music festival on the European continent, Nkisi and other SHAPE artists will be making an appearance on line-ups throughout the year. You can read our interview with co-founders Viestarts Gailītis and Rihards Endriksons by clicking HERE.

Photo: Adama Jalloh