Faustin Linyekula： My Body, My Archive

After several creations, Faustin Linyekula asks himself:

What parts of my body did I engage in each of these pieces?

What remains in my body and in my gestures today?

My body, my archive is a quest.

That of "Kabako": a "storyteller". But don't expect a happy tale that starts with "Once upon a time". My Body, My Archive is an incantatory dance that summons a whole world. In all the loose limbs of the dancer, in his flexibility and rare agility, colonial exactions, ghosts, demons and also ancestral mothers and women meet. To the rhythm of the oscillating light and Heru Shabaka-Ra's saxophone, this piece questions the traces left by the unspoken stories, by the silences of the women in the family. Access to what is not said constantly reminds the dancer, like a missing limb causing pain.

Faustin Linyekula, The Democratic Republic of the Congo

I’m known as a dancer, choreographer, but I call myself a storyteller. I tell my stories through writing, theater, dance, still or moving images. I live and work in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, former Zaire, former Belgian Congo, former Congo Free State, private property of Leopold II, King of Belgians.

In 2001, after 8 years traveling and working around the world, I returned to the ruins of my country and founded Studios Kabako in Kinshasa, first as a space for theater and dance. When six years later we moved to Kisangani, in Eastern DRC, Studio Kabako opened up to music and film. Because freeing ourselves from the colonial gaze to shape our lives on our own terms is the first step towards a future our children can be proud of. And for that no creative energy shall be left out, whatever their art form. Studio Kabako has since been a refuge for young Congolese and African artists, offering long term accompaniment, from training to production and touring.

I have toured in theaters, festivals and museums across Europe, Africa, Oceania and the Americas, including the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Central Africa Museum in Tervuren, the Tate Modern in London, the MUCEM in Marseille, Festival d’Avignon, the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, New Zealand Festival, Sharjah Biennial, Théâtre de la Ville or Festival d’Automne in Paris.