As part of the BMW Tate Live Exhibition, Linyekula places the living body in the context of the museum in My Body, My Archive. He takes audiences on a journey from the collective to the intimate through carefully chosen segments from his works Sur les traces de Dinozord 2006, Statue of Loss 2014, Banataba 2017 and Congo 2019.
In this performance, Linyekula questions ancient knowledge stored in the body against the relatively short written history found in books. Companions, dancers, actors, musicians will accompany him in this journey, helping him to tell stories, reactivate collective and personal memories and carry immaterial archives.
Linyekula imagines his own artistic journey in terms of the circle and asserts that archives of the body cannot be experienced alone. Rather, companions are essential along this journey to support knowledge generation and help carry immaterial archives.
Biography
Faustin Linyekula was born in 1974 in Ubundu, in former Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2001, Linyekula established Studios Kabako in Kinshasa, a centre for multidisciplinary practice and performance. Linyekula and Studios Kabako relocated to Kisangani in 2006 where they foster debuts of young artists as well as work with the local Lubunga communities in education, sustainability and the environment.