The French Institute of Kinshasa is hosting the exhibition entitled "Fragment" in its exhibition hall until October 31. Alongside the paintings and sculptures, the photographer Maïté Botembe Moseka has a special place, where she has placed an exhibition that, according to her, reinforces the photos hanging on the walls.
Exhibition "Fragment": between tradition and modernity, funeral rites as seen by Maïté Botembe
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Far from the impressionism that usually characterizes her, by capturing the effects of light and movement, Maïté this time confronts the spectators with a raw and current reality: death and funeral rites. The artist invites a deep reflection on the way in which modern societies have transformed these rites in relation to a past where each gesture carried meaning.
"We have lost certain habits in our modern societies, such as washing hands after returning from a cemetery or burning tires during mourning in neighborhoods," Maïté told ACTUALITE.CD.
Through an installation composed of funeral sheets, coffins, sand, branches, a stool, two basins of water and photographs hanging on the walls, Moseka questions our relationship with death, tradition and modernity. The photos immerse the viewer in a dark and introspective universe, with realistic images of coffins, sometimes in unexpected positions, unambiguously recognizable by the collective memory.
“For me, this work is a space for dialogue, a negotiation on the values linked to the preservation of the memory of death,” explains Maïté.
By adopting a more documentary and sociological style, she highlights the contradictions of Congolese society, which is seduced by aesthetic standards and consumerist practices, even in the funeral domain. This quest for appearance, to the detriment of meaning and simplicity, is for her a distortion of funeral rites.
His work is based on an implacable observation: the trivialization of death, symbolized by the omnipresence of "bling-bling" coffins and imported fabrics, is a break with ancestral traditions.
"People are adding extra flair. We're seeing more and more bling-bling coffins. At one time, we honored our dead by burying them with dignity underground, coffin or not," she laments.
By exposing these contradictions, the artist does not judge, but invites a debate. She encourages us to question the values to be transmitted to future generations in terms of funeral rites. The photographs of coffins, funeral fabrics and ritual objects arouse varied emotions in the public: some are troubled, others moved, while still others reflect on their own relationship with death.
Contemporary art, often provocative and disturbing, can also be beautiful and poetic, raising important questions about society, culture and identity. It experiments with new materials and techniques, such as installation, performance and participatory art. Maïté is part of this approach, observing with a certain distance the transformations of funeral rites, while highlighting the loss of certain traditions in favor of more Westernized practices.
Maïté is not in favor of a brutal return to a time when tradition dictated social conduct. She positions herself between the two, aware of living in a modern society, without denying her pre-modernization identity.
It all started with a recent trip by the artist to Goma, in the province of North Kivu, where she did a residency for the premiere of her film and gave classes in camps for displaced people who are victims of insecurity in eastern DRC. She noticed coffins for sale in the streets, with a significant presence of children's coffins. "However, there are still people who are buried in bags, directly underground, for lack of coffins," she regrets.
Her questioning was born from the question of what death symbolizes in an environment where life is at the center of concerns. Back in Kinshasa, she deepened her observations and questions, until creating the works exhibited.
"Everyone is afraid of death, but I lost that fear by being in Goma," she concludes.
By addressing this topic, she faces the gaze of society and various judgments. But during discussions with visitors to the exhibition, some share their own interpretations, others recall their personal experiences. The exhibition is still running for a little over a week.
