CONGO

The trilingual title, in Lingala, English, and French, immediately tells the project’s intent: fire that burns and destroys, yet, when tamed by a blacksmith’s hands, it transforms, creates, and becomes a source of life. At the centre is a blinding forge where nine artists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its diaspora confront darkness, evoking ancient cosmologies and radical imaginaries to develop narratives that go beyond pain and absence, from Kinshasa to Goma.

Featured image: Aimé Mpané, “Le souffle”, 2026 ©️Agnes Kena