MORIDJA KITENGE BANZA
Born 1980 in Kinshasa, Congo Republic
Lives and works in Nantes, France
Banque du Canada $100,-, 2015
About:
Map of Identity, 2011.
Chiromancie, #6, 2012
Banque du Canada, $10,-, 2015.
Reappropriating codes of cultural, political or social representations, Moridja Kitenge Banza created an entire universe denying spatial data as a process of identity, the same one used by early settlers to house native and denying them the freedom to invent. His Video „Hymne a Nous“ shows the artist multiplicated to a choir singing the European hymn „Ode an die Freude“ with his own lyrics.
His intension is not to accuse but to create a new identity by accepting history and looking forward. He has a master in Fine Art from the Fine Art school in Nantes, France. His work is presented in public spaces such as the Lieu unique in Nantes or the Abbey of Ronceray in Angers. In 2010 he wins the Grand Prix Leopold Sedar Senghor.
Hymne à Nous, 2009, video still.
Hymne à nous (Anthem to Us), a striking one-minute work in which he questions his African-European status as a result of Belgian colonisation. Kitenge Banza composed his own anthem made from fragments of those from different countries “to assemble this collage, this juxtaposition, this makeshift mix a little better.