2023-07-05 08:45:42
Multidisciplinary artist, dancer and performer, Natisa Exocé Kasongo was born in 1995. He lives and works in Berlin. ” As Sun Ra said, one of my greatest sources of inspiration, I am the dream of my ancestors. says Natisa Exocé Kasongo. ” Sun Ra linked spirituality and art. One does not go without the other. Creation binds us to God. We are the creation, and the creation is within us. Like Cheikh Anta Diop, Sun Ra succeeded, through his philosophy and his serenity, in giving a new image of Africa. He inspires me endlessly. »
Close to the modern Afrofuturist movement, Exocé also knows how to look in the rear view mirror: “ i am Congolese. And in my country, for many, many years, we have been prevented from being who we are. Conversion to Christianity will, from the fourteenth century, distance us from our traditions. Today I have the opportunity to live the life I want, I have the opportunity to be who I am in some way. Thus, as an artist and performer, I am making a return to the cultural heritage of my country. »
« Dancer, visual artist, I am inspired by my ancestral heritage. It is this legacy, this spirituality that inspires me, nourishes me, pushes me to create. It is a question here of research, as well as of a quest, also of identity. »
For PAM, Exocé let his imagination drift: he thus created a whole series of collages, which suits the table of his naked feast on “Positive Mental Attitude” hardcore Rastafarians from the Bad Brains, Tunisian ritual music or the iconography of Fela: ” A musical figure celebrated well beyond Nigeria, Fela, a fine Pop strategist, had taken care to build a visual pantheon, intended – among other things – to hit the media hard explains Exocé. “ Its stage costumes, its saturated covers, the styles of its singers or its dancers, even its collection of colorful underpants… Musical and political, the rebellion afrobeat was also carried by a most powerful aesthetic muscle. Understanding the path taken by Fela Anikulapo Kuti before he created Afrobeat also means immersing oneself in an incendiary iconography. This is what I, for example, staged in The Fela covers combination. »
“The Fela covers combination”, a creation by Kasapio / Exocé
With Punk is RootsExocé questions and replaces the considerable contribution of Afro-descendant communities to the punk movement, a scene judged far too hastily as white: “ if the mohawk sported by English punks in 77’s London has become legendary for its transgressive scope, then what about afro hair, systematically shorn by the colonizers? What if Fela, and his many incarcerations, wasn’t he the original punk? Unless it was the members of Death, a black trio from Detroit that foreshadowed the first punk rhythms, and this, from 1971? And don’t forget that the greatest New York hardcore band of all time was Rastafarian! »
« These creations are doors, portals to educate and educate oneself. With figures in struggle like Fela or the confidence of a Sun Ra. I like the freedom, total, provided by the collage of images, I like the freedom of its technique, just like its accidents. In collage, everything is possible, I have no limits, there are no judgements, only choices. I can go where I want, I love it. It is an ideal discipline to translate my afro-cosmic universe. »
« With my clothing brand, Kasapio, I deploy another way of communicating confides the plastic surgeon. ” I am Congolese, and we have sapologie in us. Kasapio is the spirit of human clothing. The word Kasapio is moreover a syncretism between the The, the spirit, the spiritual energy that together make up being in ancient Egypt, the sap and sapiens… Kasapio is art to wear, art in motion. These creations, their cuts or the colors used contain messages and tell stories. Kasapio is a way of putting into perspective all the metaphysical knowledge that Afro culture has brought to humanity. »
Kasapio at the Renaissance Show, Berlin, on June 25
A metaphysics of dance, of trance, of creation which innervates the hybrid, bubbling work of Exocé: ” we are only messengers from the spiritual world. Everything that happens in the spiritual world has an impact on the material world. The reverse is also true. Cosmic forces make and break us. I try to be a channel, to initiate myself even more deeply into my connection. I feel guided, and I need to understand why. When I understood why even better, I would open even more doors. »
They open up here and now, with a fashion show, a performance, this first collection as well as an unprecedented hanging, presented hand in hand by PAM and the Nyege Nyege Festival, on July 14 in Aubervilliers.
Exocé presents Kasapio, parade, performance, exhibition and afro-merch
Or ? At Point Fort d’Aubervilliers (metro line 7, Fort d’Aubervilliers).
When ? July 14, from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m.
How ? by purchasing your ticket here.
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