Alongside his colleagues, Patrick Mudekereza eschews the term “curator,” preferring instead “operateur culturel,” best understood as “cultural engineer” or “cultural maker.” More about this below. Public event introducing Waza, Another Roadmap Africa Cluster, and Graziella Kunsch at documenta fifteen, June 19, 2023. See ➝.
Waza was then called Centre d’art Picha, changing its name in 2015 following internal shifts and reorganizations. Mudekereza co-directed the first three editions of Rencontres Picha, the first edition taking place in June 2008. Recontres Picha continues independently from Waza as a biennale gathering of exhibitions and screenings, bringing together international photographers and video artists.
Natacha Nsabimana in conversation with Christian Nyampeta, a recorded conversation staged at Sometimes It Was Beautiful, an exhibition by Christian Nyampeta curated by Xiaoyu Weng at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, May–June 2021.
“Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Events of 2009,” World Report, Human Rights Watch. See ➝.
Costa Tshinzam, “Rita Mukebo: Parler de nos problems sans les dramatizer,” Habari RDC, April 17, 2023, translated by Christian Nyampeta. See ➝.
Pinkie Mekgwe and Adebayo Olukoshi, “Preface,” in Contemporary African Cultural Productions, ed. V. Y. Mudimbe (Dakar: Codesria, 2012), xiii.
Achille Mbembe, “Variations on the Beautiful in the Congolese World of Sounds,” Chimurenga Chronic, 2015, translated by Dominique Malaquais. See ➝.
Mbembe, “Variations on the Beautiful.”
Other local art institutions include the French Institute and Wallonie-Bruxelles.
CINOLU emphasizes taking stock of ongoing digital mutations in locally cultivated fields such as comics, video mapping, and much more. Waza 2.0, initiated at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, is an active and resourceful WhatsApp group functioning as a community channel. It is exemplary of the ongoing social inventions powered by networked technologies and social media, as well as emergent forms of resistance and creativity.
Mekgwe and Olukoshi, “Preface,” xiii.
Marie-Yemta Moussanang, “Carnets des Ateliers Nº4 – Politiques de la Solidarité: Les Chemins de l’État de demain—Nadine Machikou {Notebooks from the Ateliers no. 4 – Politics of Solidarity: Towards the State to Come, with Nadine Machikou},” February 2022, in Afrotopiques, podcast, translated by Christian Nyampeta. See ➝.
Research questions raised in “Replay 1970,” a draft essay published by Waza internally within the context of the Another Roadmap Africa Cluster, 2015.
Waza internal working document, January 2023.
Artists, contributors, and keynote speakers included Bodil Furu, Prodige Tumba Makonga, Feza Kayungu Ramazani, Nontobeko Ntombela, Chadrack Kakule, Stéphane Kabila, and Christelle Ntanga.
The project, Revolution Room, won the Award of Excellence in the Critical Dialogue category of the 2016 African Architecture Awards in Cape Town.
A research project on the history of arts education undertaken across a network of educators, artists, and researchers working on four continents, initiated at the Institute for Art Education at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
GROUP50:50 realizes and produces transnational artistic cooperation projects. The collective describes itself as telling “stories about the historical and current economic and political interconnections between their countries {and} demands the return of cultural heritage and reparations for colonial crimes and current human rights violations.” It also “addresses the history of globalization, colonial domination of the African continent, and neocolonial practices of exploitation of people and nature.” The Ghosts Are Returning was produced by PODIUM Esslingen and Centre d'Art Waza Lubumbashi in co-production with CTM Festival Berlin, euro-scene Leipzig, Kaserne Basel and Vorarlberger Landestheater. See ➝.