text Bidontopia

Bidontopia

The project Bidontopia grew in 2006 from the initiative of the Belgian artist Djo Moembo (RDC. 1975) and Bren Heymans (B.1975). The name Bidontopia refers to the small “shanty towns” that you you find everywhere in Kinshasa. These slums are built from scrap and cardboard: small villages organically grow within the city, without planning, without a center. In Bidontopia you hear “Utopia”, reminiscent of the book of Thomas More. Though this project is not aiming for some kind of ideal city/society but rather, how Kinshasa could look like in the future. Bidontopia is an intercultural collaboration project, where information from a long termresearch is processed into a large installation. During the investigation develops graduallyan intercultural dialogue on identity, geography, architecture and urbanization. The mixedorigin of both artists is of capital influence within this process.Bren Heymans is a quarter Indonesian, Djo Moembo is half Congolese. This background has shaped them as individuals, plays a role in their visual oeuvre and was indirectly the reason for Bidontopia.For Bren Heymans his Indonesian origin was a cause to perform an experiment on the Indonesian island Savu : he built his “Adat Greenhouse Project”, which is based on the existing local architecture. Such projects are a recurring theme in his work: rather than his in-situ projects, Bren sees this as his personal work. Djo Moembo went back to Kinshasa to find his father: it is during that first trip that the impetus for Bidontopia took shape. The sidekick for Djo was to investigate how it would be possible to undertake a project in Kinshasa. Afterwards Bren would do the same journey.What started as a cooperation between Heymans and Moembo, bobbed rapidly into an exchange between Belgian and Congolese artists, in which several players had a role. The Congolese sculptor Bienvenu Nanga (1968), who for the period of work in Local 01 came to belguim is one of those players. He came up with the idea in Kinshasa to create an open forum for young local artists.For local artists, it is almost impossible to exhibit in Kinshasa : those places are mainly accessible to wealthy expats. It is intended for those plans during the period of work in Local 01 to further elaborate. In addition, this work period is the opportunity to provide an overview of the trail that this project since 2006 has passed. The advent of Nanga Bienvenu, loaded with two bags of recyclematerial from Congo, gives the project a boost. Local 01 is a laboratory, stage for three artists from three very different disciplines together to start “jamming”.

Once,Congo was a Belgian colony.

For Bren and Djo colonization has no strictly negative connotation. Not only has this time formed them as individuals, it is also the basis of all exchange that exists today between Belgium and Congo. The first time I visited him in the studio, Bren tells me: We can presume that without this history and link of colonisation this project would probably never have been started. Maybe I would never have worked with Djo. During this colonisation period,we can asume it wasn’t a one way interaction.  Belgium did changed in a materially way too. When cultures interact, there is somehow always an exchange. It is just by such communication that there is culture. I am also besides an artist collector of ethnic art . By experience, you begin to see how important recycling is. Form is a universal language: the shapes and patterns that you see in African art, return everywhere. Egyptian Mamluk motives influenced the arabesques of European Gothic churches and the motives of Anatolian carpets you see anywhere in the world . In Picasso’s work are very clear references to African art, though he was not very open to admit this influence in his artwork.  It is a very Eurocentric idea that you can possess a culture, or that you can only be from yourself creative. Everything is sampling: nothing comes just out of the blue, you’d rather be speaking of a constant interaction. A kind of woven matter. Europeans took influences from the  Africans, but that also happened the other way around. Portuguese colonists brought with them images of saints that inspired african sculptors . These sculptures inspired the early European modernists. Although here and there you still see traces of the Belgian presence, Kinshasa has since become a very other city. The Congolese society during the last decade drastically changed by the impact of the Internet and mobile telephony. That revolution has however been very different in the western world. European cities grow mainly in height, while Kinshasa unfolds in width. The result of this expansion is unpredictable and infinitely varied: Around the colonial plan of Kinshjasa there is all along the sides built without a clear plan behind it As the city grows arises new communities. Instead of adapting the city to their needs…the Congolese adjust themselves to a city that is constantly in motion. “Bidontopia is a project where many had a hand in, and where the surprise effect plays a large role. Some of our ideas were implemented in Congo and sent by mail, without knowing the outcome. The project worked from the beginning as an “open source”:  everyone who came into contact with it, could contribute. This way of workinghas the  advantage that it is not driven by purely instrumental thinking. The final outcome of  the project remains undetermined, but it brings an exchange in motion that is essential for all participants. The communication revolution is also playing a roll, thanks to the Internet the exchange is much easier then say, ten years ago.  The colonization started out as an adventure, a quest for new worlds. In this way, The project also arise: from Kinshasa curiosity about what could be. We saw soon associations with science fiction: the mission of the Enterprise in Star Trek is discovering new worlds for humanity on the run. ” Western science fiction films such as Star Trek or Escape from LA often have an apocalyptic setting and express the desire to escape. In Kinshasa, the future lies still open : African science fiction would rather go about emancipation, about new possibilities.

Djo Moembo: “We sat for my first trip very much in our minds with afro-futurism: think of the sphere of the music of Sun Ra, or the shows from Parliament and George Clinton ‘the mothership’. Afro-American used their fantasies about the future as a way to neutralize the past of the slavery. The slave ship, a spaceship: That is the vibe I was sensing within this project. I have from the start been looking for a way to sense a cinematic approach. With the objects arising from our research, I create the backdrop for what you might consider as the first African science fiction movie. It reminds me the clumsy science fiction of the films of George Méliès, as in “Voyage dans la lune”. In “Voyage dans la lune ” he creates with simple effects a dream world. Méliès’ universe stuck so clumsy in one another, that the presence of the decor impossibly would go unnoticed. Still applies the cliché that Méliès is the father of the fantastic cinema, while Lumiere represents the realistic, documentary side of the film. Djo Moembo line with that imaginative approach: science fiction as an escape from the present.

For Djo’s first trip in 2006, Bren gave some computer sketches of futuristic cities. From sketches which arose a discussion on the concept of utopia and the ideal city. Architects from Matete district of Kinshasa (Toko Missi JP and Andre Matavunga) reworked the drawings to their own insights. Based on these new plans Edo Ngingi a Congolese artist made a clay model, which was passed to the studio of Gabriel Poto. Poto is Ebenist a local sculptor who produces for the tourist market: small dolls, souvenirs …  But he equally makes traditional masks for initiation rites in the villages. The design was meticulously carved in wenge wood and sent by post. The result is a surprising combination: it looks like a floating spaceship ,that bears a traditional African village. Djo Moembo: “It looks like a floating city, or a floating village as you want. They fit perfectly with the street images I filmed in Kinshasa. The beauty of this model is that we use it as backdrop , as in the films of Melies a bit in a clumsy way. ‘

Bren Heymans: ” Around that model a video triptych was created: Central you see an animation of our “spaceship” above Kinshasa, left and right you can see the city grow organically. ” Through their participation in the festival “Coup de Ville” in Sint-Niklaas, the project received a new turn. The spaceship in wenge wood was used as the basis for a workshop with children from the local asylum center. The children made their utopic clay houses based on the model: These were in turn reenterpreted by the studio of Gabriel Poto.

Just like in the video triptych the city on either side of the model further grew, as these were new forms imaginary cities, regardless of the model. During the same festival the spaceship was exhibited in the Winter Garden of the asylum center in Sint niklaas. For that occasion a huge base was built for the model. The chassis is many times bigger than the wooden form : Bren and Djo built a robust shape with five wide legs. The shape speaks to the imagination: it would be a city in the desert that rises high above the rocks, or a giant robot. It looks very futuristic: it is something impossible. Nevertheless, it is in a strange way recognizable.

Bren: “This recognition lies probably in the material: It is our pleasure to link, explain the tradition. It is a clay sculpture: the material crumbles and wears constantly. Each time we move the sculpture, we must restore it. ” Djo: “Just as the mud mosques we saw in Mali: the walls there are also rubbed again each year with clay. Yet here it loses its traditional meaning. Here it gets the role to a form that is not of this world, but reffering to the clay it becomes real. The form is also multifunctional: within a space it looks like a futuristic pedestal, in a movie it is an entire landscape. I want to create a spin-off of this project in afilm, in which a camera is flying over this landscape. ” Bren: “This is a great version of that form. Later it has been worked out on a smaller scale in wood by the workshop of Gabriel Poto. Do you see the patterns in the wood? These Congo motives, that you often see in Kongo art from where Poto descends. But he used it in a very sterile, repetitive way. Poto’s way of working is strongly influenced by colonial academicism. I showed him how they were used originally, quite differently: much more diverse, without repetition. That application he uses himself in his studio now. There were many moments during this project: it was a continuous ping pong between the present and the tradition. ” That game between past and tradition also returns in a picture that is more demanding in the periphery of the project. In 2010 Bren selected for an exhibition at the Mechelen Court of Busleyden from his collection of a series of Japanese toy robots and ancestral figurines from Indonesia and Africa. They were then drawn across the work of Ernest Wijnants, a classical sculptor with Indian and African influences. Bren deliberately placed the statues together, they form a bridge between tradition and future, between north and south. Within Bidontopia they function as characters from other worlds.

Bren: “In a sense, the characters are like Bienvenu Nanga’s robots they look like creatures with a soul. We see such robots as toys, as soulless utensils. However, the animated world of Bienvenu here is less far than you might think. African mirrorfetisjes wear on their bellies a mirror that serves as a “magic charge”: often they have a healing, protective function. That form on the belly you see constantly return on the robots of Bienvenu. Isn’t it remarkable that all these robots have a protective shield on their stomach or their chest? ” Bienvenu Nanga speaks softly and uncertain. When he is at work, he makes himself almost invisible. Oddly enough, it fits perfectly within the environment of Bidontopia. In contrast to Bren and Djo he is not concerned with reflecting and connections, making for him is a lot more important. He succeeds between the theoretical discussions around him in his casual thing to do. While Bren and Djo discuss the layout of the room, he is more interested in the manufacturing of his robots. As an artist, he regularly takes a look away, thinking and continue to do. His actions are terrible labor intensive: it is only here that he discovered how quickly a drill can go through a metal plate. Bienvenu learned the trade from his elder brother Nanga-Nella. Since his death, he tries to continue his work. Bienvenu believes himself that he could not resist the attraction of art, which he sees as “the soul of society”. For twenty years he works in his studio to a own universe of robots, airplanes, boats, locomotives, all kinds of machinery … You would give him the title of a Congolese Panamarenko. He’s a real doer: he is constantly engaged in old things to create something new. Found materials play a major role in his work: he is constantly engaged in the collection of used objects.

Some materials he finds on his walks, in other countries. Around his studio is a vibrant network of family, friends and kids … who thinks about Bienvenu if they find something. In his view that network is therefore co- author of his work. Children hang around in his workshop, have their say, are involved in the robots. If mirorfetisjes have a healing function, then that element is certainly present in the work of Bienvenu. He sees art as a remedy, a way to heal. That cure is in cooperation around his studio, the exchange between friends and family, between different styles and cultures, in Kinshasa but also between Kinshasa and Belgium. In Lokaal01 he is mixing materials from Kinshasa with materials from Belgium. They are mixtures of materials, each with its own story. With different materials he makes something new, he rearranges the matter, he recreates the reality. His sculptures have soul and a message: the characters who are living their own lives. Bienvenu creates for them an environment of collages, materials with a strange patina: he builds trees, houses, fictional villages. It is a world that breathes, lives, moves. He sees also the forum for young artists in Kinshasa that he wants to create: a node, a collage of different influences, an “open source”.

During the work period in Lokaal01 Bren and Bienvenu worked together and created models for this pavilion. They look like a futuristic version the “ligablo’s” street boutiques encountered everywhere in Kinshasa. The largest is lined with small pieces of blackened tin with various patinas, a method borrowed from Bienvenu by Bren. As the base of the model is a multifunctional object: it is a study for something that still needs to be, and yet it is already new reality. This project has a point, or are there always new goals and ramifications a long this project?  “The construction of such a space in Kinshasa is another link in a chain that since 2006 gets more longer. Possibly there will arise new crossovers: This project does not clearly have an endpoint. Bidontopia is also a utopian given: the plan for the pavilion would not be if everything in Congo would be peacefull and harmonious. The project first drove very much like science fiction, because such fictional world is a way to escape reality. With such a pavilion we would may intervene in the reality itself, add to the reality of Kinshasa. ” In the first phase of Bidontopia everything remained in the hypothetical: even if something took shape, the initiators could go in any direction with it .Gradually, the effect of their actions and the decisions they have to take are more and more political. An open forum is a statement to the outside world, one step closer to the world that Bienvenu wants to achieve. Where Bren and Djo in the beginning hesitated to describe Bidontopia as the outline for an ideal society, they now actually contributs to achieving an utopia.  

It remains unclear where Bidontopia will cease, as the origin of the project still is difficult to trace. The only strictly linear in this story, is the chronology of events. From the outside it seems sometimes the project lacks consistency in the variety of products as viewers sometimes loses the overview. The route of Bren and Djo seems at times a chain of casual encounters and transient efforts. If we look from a aesthetic point of view, we see in the workspace often repeated the same shape. The futuristic chassis and engines of Bienvenu appear simultaneously and do not belong together. This presentation appears to be only the tip of the iceberg: what the project lacks in continuity, remains hidden under the surface. The basic idea in 2006 was emerging travels back and forth like a nomad, sometimes remains somewhere to hang and then continue. Between its various stops, new nodes arises. Inevitably arises a comparison with the rhizomatic structure of Gilles Deleuze. A rhizome is a concept from biology and literally means an underground root system whose main feature is that it has multiple inputs. The rhizome connects an arbitrary point with another random point.There is no main entrance from which side you enter, once you’re inside, you’re paired. It is an image of endless and unconscious ramifications, which constantly grow horizontally. Take the ginger root: if something breaks,it grows somewhere else again . A network of growths. And it grows everywhere between. It does not consist of units, but of dimensions.Bidontopia develops according to a rhizomatic structure. It is striking that just that structure is the one which serves for a mutual exchange.On the surface of our world the separation of the continents make it impossible to really meet each other. Underground forms, however, a complicated network that is endless. Belgian, Indonesian and Congolese matter, imagination and reality are a complex whole. Onceyou come into contact with that structure it conditions you. The soul of the Congo, the friendly creaturesof Bienvenu: slow wrestle themself to the surface.

.Andreas Peeters, Antwerp, April 2011