Current / Upcoming / Past
The presentation reflects upon the draining rhythms of Central African cityscapes. Urban dwellers have to make constant efforts to overcome the city’s disorder and its ensuing ambiguities. The city forces them to engage in an almost daily ‘divinatory’ act of trying to guess the meanings that lay hidden within the fluid parameters of urban life, of unveiling the city’s unreliability, of steering clear of its many unpredictable events, of cruising unscathed throughout the day, and of making sense of one’s own pathways of adversity or luck. This daily labour is often structured around the activity of ‘searching’ (Lingala: koluka), a term commonly used by urbanites to describe their daily quest for food, money, jobs, contacts and opportunities. Although one can easily lose oneself in this often desperate ‘searching’, it simultaneously involves the interpretive capacity or possibility to discover and grasp opportunities in the gaps that invariably open up between, or even within, things, events and persons.
Filip De Boeck is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He has conducted extensive ethnographic research in both rural and urban communities in D.R. Congo since 1987. His book publications include ‘Kinshasa: Tales of the Invisible City’, with photographer Marie- Françoise Plissart (Leuven University Press, new edition 2014) and ‘Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa’, co-edited with Alcinda Honwana (James Currey, 2005). Together with co-curator Koen Van Synghel, he presented an exhibition about Kinshasa at the Belgian Pavillion of the Architecture Biennial in Venice (2004), for which they received a Golden Lion, and he also co-curated an exhibition around the work of Congolese artist Bylex for the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) in Brussels (2008). In 2010, De Boeck released ‘Cemetery State’ (FilmNatie), a documentary about a Kinshasa graveyard. He is currently doing research on new urban extensions in various cities across the African continent. Together with photographer Sammy Baloji, he is preparing a book on the subject.
The lecture will be in English and takes place in the context of Ângela Ferreira’s exhibition Indépendance Cha Cha, which runs until 01.06.2014.
This project has been developed in partnership with the EDP Foundation and in collaboration with Africa.Cont. Our thanks also to Culturgest for their kind support during the production of the exhibition.
Maumaus
Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar, 148 - 3º C
1050-021 Lisboa, Portugal
Monday to Friday, 10h00 to 13h00,
14h30 to 19h00
Tel: + 351 21 352 11 55
maumaus@maumaus.org
Current:
Independent Study Programme
Call 2023
Until 04.09.2022
Upcoming:
Manthia Diawara
AI: African Intelligence
Cinema Palace
28.11.2022
19h30
Commissioned by Serpentine, MUBI and PCAI Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative, as part of Serpentine's Back to Earth project.
Upcoming:
Manthia Diawara
AI: African Intelligence
Berlin International Film Festival
16.02. – 26.02.2023
Commissioned by Serpentine, MUBI and PCAI Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative, as part of Serpentine's Back to Earth project.
Current:
Seminar
Amanda Boetzkes
Realism Without Authority
01.04, 04.04.2022
10h–13h, 14h–17h
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Registration is free but limited to the number of seats available. Please send an email with a short CV to admin@maumaus.org by 24.03.2022. Confirmation of registration will be sent by email. The seminar will be in English.
Lumiar Cité
Rua Tomás del Negro, 8A
1750-105 Lisboa, Portugal
Wednesday to Sunday, 15h00 to 19h00
or by appointment.
Tel: + 351 21 755 15 70
lumiar.cite@maumaus.org
Loretta Fahrenholz
Circle Navel Nil
24.04. – 27.06.2021
24.06 | 18h00 Online conversation with Sabeth
Buchmann, Loretta Fahrenholz and Jürgen Bock
Current:
Anna Schachinger
Allover
08.10. – 11.12.2022
07.10 | 18h00 Circulating Salt, Ayami Awazuhara
08.10 | 16h00 Opening of the exhibition
Current:
Willem Oorebeek
Obstakles
17.12.2022 – 19.03.2023
Closed 24, 25, 31 December and 1 January
17.12 | 17h00 Talk with Willem Oorebeek,
Arne Kaiser and Jürgen Bock
17.12 | 18h00 Opening of the exhibition
In cooperation with Lumiar Cité:
Tiffany Chung
Thu Thiêm: an archaeological
project for future remembrance
08.06. - 08.09.2019
Johann Jacobs Museum
Maumaus/Lumiar Cité
is funded by Ministério da Cultura/Direção-Geral das Artes. With the support of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and Junta de Freguesia do Lumiar