Founded in 2014 by artist Kiripi Katembo, for its second edition (Yango II), the Kinshasa Biennale takes on a processional mode to materialize a dream-making laboratory, imagined and run exclusively by artists. This unique “factory” is performed and narrated at the Palais de Tokyo, in The Library of Things we Forgot to Remember, at the heart of the exhibition Ubuntu, a lucid dream.

The exhibition, ‘‘Ubuntu, a Lucid Dream’’ calls not for the night but rather for the day, and gathers diurnal dreams, those that urge action, maintaining the body and mind in wakefulness. In relation to the exhibition, the Kinshasa Yango 2 Biennale conceives a stage of voices and performances mobilizing lucid and collective dreams. They roam the Democratic Republic of Congo, traverse the plurality of the Afro-diasporic worlds, inhabit the independences and reinforce the utopian power of a universe freed from race and colony. They all affirm their refusal, whether politic or poetic, of resignation, of a world reduced to faces eroded by the absence of alternative.

The word in the Lingala language for dream, “ndoto”, often carries negative connotations when it is uttered in the streets of Kinshasa. Idealities and chimeras that wander in the minds of those who struggle to keep their feet on the ground. But not all dreams are nocturnal, and waking, diurnal dreams refuse to be satisfied with the present as it is. They strike it, recompose it, remodel it until it takes on a new form. Waking dreams are political dreams, and far from neglecting the material, they plough furroughs into the earth for future cultivation. This transformative power of dreams underpins numerous collective and artistic projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The session ‘‘Oyo Ndoto Na Biso’’ (literally meaning “it is our dream”) paves the way for the desires that animate the Congolese and Afro-diasporic creative scene, opening the path to new social and political imaginaries.

 

6 – 7 pm: ‘‘Soul Sampler ~ The Time Has Come’’
DJ mix 1st part – Fallon Mayanja (artist, dj, performer)

7 – 9 pm – session Oyo Ndoto Na Biso / This Is Our Dream

7 pm: Introduction

7 :05 – 7 :15 pm: ‘‘Mambo’’
Poetry – Annie Lulu (artist, poet, writer)

7 :15 – 7 :35 pm: ‘‘Oba et la Griffe du Diable’’ [Oba and the devil’s claw]
Illustrated tale – Claudia Tenant (artist, painter, musician) and Sara Alonso Gómez (art historian, co-curator of Yango 2)

7 :35 – 7 :45 pm: ‘‘La Quincaillerie des Corps Bâclés’’ (work in progress) [The Hardware of broken bodies]
Film – Fiston Mwanza Mujila (artist, poet, writer) and Nelson Makengo (artist, filmmaker)

7 :45 – 8 :05 pm: ‘‘Deux Sœurs Voient Double’’ [Two sisters see double]
Talk – Maya Mihindou (artist) and Nadia Yala Kisukidi (philosopher, co-curator of Yango 2)

8 :10 – 8 :25 pm: ‘‘Renaître de Cendres’’ [Rising from the ashes]
Dance – Yves Mwamba (artist, choreographer)

8 :30 – 8 :40 pm: ‘‘La Biennale Infinie’’ [The infinite biennale]
Lecture, live music – Samuel Kamanzi (artist, singer, composer) and Nadia Yala Kisukidi (philosopher, co-curator of Yango 2)

8 :45 – 9 :00 pm: ‘‘Brûle ! L’Intensité du Jour’’ [Burn! The intensity of the day]
Live music – Samuel Kamanzi (artist, singer, composer)

9 – 10 pm : ‘‘Soul Sampler ~ The Time Has Come’’
DJ mix 2^nd part – Fallon Mayanja (artist, dj, performer)