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Crossing the Line is pleased
to present this wonderful event with Faustin Linyekula, internationally
renowned dancer and founder of Studios Kabako, a space for
contemporary dance serving his native Democratic Republic
of the Congo.
As part of Columbia’s ECOGRAM series exploring the
question of sustainability, Linyekula will appear on a panel
with scholars and architects discussing the role of the artist
in driving social change. The panel will also include noted
author, poet, and curator Okwui Enwezor, and is designed
to increase awareness of contemporary culture in Africa and
open up the question of how art and culture can act as catalysts
for sustainable development.
The ECOGRAM series aims to expand the ways in which we think
about sustainability beyond the "greening" of buildings,
toward a more complex exploration of cities, social and economic
sustainability, and the role of art and culture in raising
awareness of issues surrounding sustainability.
Faustin Linyekula Bio
Dancer and choreographer, Faustin Linyekula lives and works
in Kisangani, North-East of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, former Zaire, former Belgian Congo, former independent
state of Congo.... Faustin teaches in Africa, Europe (Cork,
Parts / Brussels, CNDC / Angers, Lisbon, Impulstanz / Vienna),
and in the United States.
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- Following literature and theater studies in Kisangani,
he settled in Nairobi in 1993 and collaborated with
mime artist Opiyo Okach and dancer Afrah Tenambergen,
co-founding in 1997 the first contemporary dance company
in Kenya, the Gàara company. Their first piece, Cleansing,
received an award at the Rencontres chorégraphiques
africaines de Luanda in 1998. Faustin worked then as
a choreographer, performer, and dance teacher between
South Africa, Reunion Island, and Europe. He was offered
residencies by Régine Chopinot in La Rochelle (France),
Mathilde Monnier in Montpellier (France), and the Tanzwochen
Festival in Wien (Austria) where he created with South-African
dancer Gregory Maqoma Tales off the Mud Wall (2000).
Back in Kinshasa since June 2001, he has developed
there a company dedicated to dance and visual theater,
providing training programs, as well as supporting
research and creation: the Studios Kabako. Memory,
forgetting, and the suppression of memory—in his works,
Faustin addresses the legacy of decades of war, terror,
fear and the collapse of the economy for himself, his
family, and his friends. With the Studio, Faustin has
presented seven pieces: Spectacularly empty (2001), Triptyque
sans titre (2002), Spectacularly empty II,
a revival for the black box of the 2001 piece, Radio
Okapi (2004), a performance space including guests
and live radio. Based on Congo’s recent history, Le
Festival des mensonges (Festival of Lies, 2005-06)
is performed in two versions: a 2-hour version and
an all-night-long version from 11pm to 6am. The
Dialogue Series: iii. Dinozord (2007) tells the
story of a return to the native country: what happened
to the city after several years of war? After several
years away, where are the friends who dreamed once
to change African literature and theater? Festival
of Lies and The Dialogue Series: iii. Dinozord were
both performed in Avignon as part of the 2007 Avignon
Festival. In 2007–08, Faustin worked on the staging
of La Fratrie errante, a text by Marie-Louise
Bibish Mumbu. In 2009, Faustin presented his own version
of Jean Racine’s Bérénice commissioned by the
Comédie Française / Paris in Spring 09, as well as
a Studio Kabako’s creation, more more more… future,
around ndombolo, the Congolese pop music (premiere
in Brussels in May as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts).
In 2009, he was also part of Sans-titre, a duet
by and with Raimund Hoghe. In 2006–07, he was part
of a think tank with other African artists and intellectuals
around the creation of an arts center near Cape Town.
In December 2007, he received the Principal Award of
the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development.
Since 2006, Studio Kabako’s activities have moved to
Kisangani and Faustin is now working on the development
of a series of neighborhood cultural centers around
performing arts and image in the city.
Mamadou Diouf Bio
Professor of History, Director of Institute for African Studies,
Member of Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University
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- Mamadou Diouf is a Professor of History and Middle
East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC). He
leads Columbia University’s Institute for African
Studies at the School of International and Public Affairs.
Diouf is also a faculty member in Columbia's Departments
of Educated principally in France, Diouf is a renowned
West African scholar who has taught in his native Senegal
at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar and guest-lectured
at many European and American universities. He holds
a Ph.D. from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (France).
His research interests include urban, political, social
and intellectual history in colonial and postcolonial
Africa. His most recent book is Histoire du Senegal:
Le Modele Isalamo-Wolof Et Ses Peripheries (2001).
He is the author, editor and co-author of several other
works including Les Figures du Politique En Afrique,
Des Pouvoirs Herites aux Pouvoirs Elus (1999) and Les
Jeunes, Hantise de L'Espace Public dans Les Societes
du Sud, (Autrepart, 18, 2001). He is also a member
of the editorial board of several professional journals
including the Journal of African History.
Okwui Enwezor Bio
Okwui Enwezor is a Nigerian-born American art critic and
curator.
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- Enwezor was artistic director of the Documenta11 exhibition
in Germany (1998–2002) and the 7th Gwang-ju Biennale
in South Korea (2008). He has curated numerous exhibitions
in some of the most distinguished museums around the
world, including Archive Fever: Uses of the Document
in Contemporary Art, International Center of Photography; The
Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements
in Africa, 1945–1994, Museum Villa Stuck,
Munich, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Museum of Contemporary
Art of Chicago, P.S.1 and Museum of Modern Art, New
York; Century City, Tate Modern, London, and others.
His writings have appeared in numerous journals, catalogues,
books, and magazines including: Third Text, Documents,
Texte zur Kunst, Grand Street, Parkett, Artforum, Frieze,
Art Journal, and others. Among his books are "Reading
the Contemporary: African Art, from Theory to the Marketplace" (MIT
Press), and "Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies of
a Transnational Global Form" (Wilhelm Fink
Verlag, Munich). He is also the editor of a four-volume
publication of Documenta 11 Platforms: Democracy
Unrealized; Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice
and the Processes of Truth and Reconciliation; Creolité and
Creolization; Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown,
Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos" (Hatje Cantz,
Verlag, Stuttgart).
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Free and open
to the public
Venue
Columbia
University
Wood Auditorium
Avery Hall
Enter at Broadway
and 116th Street
Subway
1 to 116th St
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Raimund
Hoghe with Faustin Linyekula 