Faustin Linyekula

I’m known as a dancer, choreographer, but I call myself a storyteller. I tell my stories through writing, theatre, dance, still or moving images. I live and work in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, former Zaire, former Belgian Congo, former Congo Free State, private property of Leopold II, King of Belgians. In 2001, after eight years abroad (Kenya, Indian Ocean, Europe), I returned to the ruins of my native country. I wanted to be as close as possible to these stories of the Congo that haunt all my shows; but it was also a challenge against the desperation that every year pushes thousands of Congolese out of the country, never to return. Thus were born the Studios Kabako. Not an artistic company, but a place. A refuge for artists from the Congo and beyond, offering long-term accompaniment, from training to production and touring. A space to federate creative energies, regardless of artistic disciplines (dance, theater, music or cinema). But being an artist in the DR Congo is more than just producing so-called artistic objects, it is first and foremost being a citizen at the heart of the community, proposing spaces of imagination, spaces of possibilities. That’s why Studios Kabako is also a pilot water purification project, supplying every day clean drinking water to 1,000 people in a district of the city with no running water. It’s also computer literacy workshops for children and adults in a neighborhood without electricity. Or “Dessine-moi une forêt” (Draw me a forest), a collaboration with the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Kisangani around environmental education for children and adolescents. I have toured in theatres, festivals and museums across Europe, Africa, Oceania and the Americas, including the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Central Africa Museum in Tervuren, the Tate Modern in London, the MUCEM in Marseille, Festival d’Avignon, the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, New Zealand Festival, Sharjah Biennial, Théâtre de la Ville or Festival d’Automne in Paris. I was the artist of the city in Lisbon in 2016, and co-associate artist for Holland Festival in 2019. I received the 2007 Principal Award from the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, the 2014 CurryStone Design Prize, the 2018 Inaugural Soros Arts Fellowship and the 2019 Tällberg / Eliasson Global Leadership Prize.