Standing Up Against Violence: Faustin Linyekula’s Congo Work
The new work from Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula, developed with musician-filmmaker Franck Moka and performer Inès Mangominja, arrives in Lausanne with a forceful, intimate vocabulary. The piece lasts about an hour and lands like a resounding clap: sound, gesture, and almost complete silence on stage, all choreographed to bear witness to the violence that has shaped the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for three decades. In a country where conflicts have claimed millions of lives and displaced communities, the work asks audiences to look, listen, and feel before speaking.
The performers and the stage language
At the front of the stage, Inès Mangominja unfurls movement that is slow, fractured, and deliberate—a process of reconnection with body and memory. Behind her, a canvas becomes a living screen for projected images that carry a voracious, consuming power, reminding us of traditions that endure while they exist under pressure. A steady percussion presence, Huguette Tolinga, grounds the piece with a human heartbeat—an audible breath in a performance that is otherwise lean and restrained. The triad of motion, image, and rhythm creates a conversational space where memory and resilience cross paths with political violence.
Sound design, visuals, and collaboration
Franck Moka, both musician and visual designer, shapes the work’s sonic landscape and its evolving imagery. He co-created the project with Faustin Linyekula, forging a collaborative language that translates conflict into a sensorial experience. The projections on the canvas are not mere decoration; they function as a chorus of history and power—rituals, wounds, and acts of endurance that insist on a nuanced view of Congo’s cultural life amid pressure from external forces.
The premiere conversation
At the Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, the world premiere gathered two generations of artists who have long wondered how Congolese aesthetics can confront violence on a global stage. Linyekula describes the piece as a form of bearing witness without sermonizing, while Moka emphasizes translating political violence into concrete, tactile experience. Their discussion after the opening night underscored a shared conviction: art can name, question, and resist without simplifying reality.
A reflexion on history, memory, and standing up
Three decades of conflict in the Congo have left an indelible mark on memory and creative practice. The show’s compact, hour-long form intensifies every gesture, every sound, and every image, transforming standing up into a political act that can be misread or punished in Congo as elsewhere. The experience asks audiences to stay present—to listen as keenly as they watch—and to acknowledge that cultural life persists even as violence tries to erase it. In this sense, the piece is less about a narrative and more about responsibility: to witness, to reflect, and to act in response to what is seen and felt on stage.
Conclusion: An artistic wake-up call
As the lights dim, the collaboration between Linyekula, Mangominja, Tolinga, and Moka remains in the room—a living record of how dance and sound can confront systemic violence with dignity and urgency. The Lausanne premiere marks not just a local milestone but a global invitation: to engage with Congo’s history through art, to honor memory without nostalgia, and to imagine a future where standing up is a shared act of resilience rather than a risk to personal safety.
