{"id":9453,"date":"2024-02-29T18:25:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T18:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/?p=9453"},"modified":"2025-01-08T16:08:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T22:08:54","slug":"an-evening-with-baloji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/2024\/02\/29\/an-evening-with-baloji\/","title":{"rendered":"An Evening with Baloji\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 29, 6:00 p.m.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Baloji, Peau de Chagrin \/ Bleu de Nuit, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Sudu Connexion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Critically acclaimed Belgian-Congolese artist and musician Baloji presents a selection of his stunning short films. Operating in the realms between documentary, magical realism, and social critique, Baloji\u2019s hybrid practice explores the transcultural identities of African diasporans and the history and future of the Congo. He often collaborates with other artists to create elaborate costumes and sets his films to his own music, itself a kaleidoscope of hip-hop, Congolese rumba, and house with lyrics that mix the personal and political.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2018\u201319, Belgium, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 54 minutes
\nIn French with English subtitles \/ Format: DCP<\/p>\n

Presented in partnership with the Gene Siskel Film Center, which premieres Baloji’s debut feature <\/span><\/i>Omen<\/span> on Friday, March 1, as part of the European Union Film Festival: Spotlight on Belgium.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Program<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kaniama Show
\n<\/span><\/i>2018, 23 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

Winner, Special Jury Prize, Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur<\/span><\/p>\n

Echoing the title of his critically acclaimed 2018 album <\/span>137 Avenue Kaniama<\/span><\/i>, Baloji\u2019s short is a stinging satire of political corruption and media collusion in post-independence Democratic Republic of the Congo. Taking shape as a Sunday afternoon variety show, smiling guests sing the praises of government officials and mining interests while musical interludes suggest a different reality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peau de Chagrin \/ Bleu de Nuit
\n<\/span><\/i>2018, 10 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>A dreamscape of electric hues and intriguing characters\u201d\u2013 Daphne Milner, <\/span>It\u2019s Nice That<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the bewitching <\/span>Peau de Chagrin \/ Bleu de Nuit<\/span><\/i>, Baloji meditates on both the ardent bonds between people as well as between people and the land. Set on a former Univlier plantation in Lusanga now cultivated by the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League\u2014an art and agricultural cooperative that has bought the territory back with profits from the sale of artworks to Western institutions\u2014the film unfolds in a series of tableaux that interweave the story of an unstable romance with the violent history of colonial extraction. Suffused with the region\u2019s greenery, the two stories play out on stages woven from palm leaves and Indigenous vegetation and overseen by skeleton-faced ghosts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Never Look at the Sun
\n<\/span><\/i>2019, 5 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

When he was young, Baloji often heard the expression \u201cnever look at the sun\u2026because you\u2019re already black enough.\u201d In this collaboration with the acclaimed writer and designer Thandi Loewenson, he uses choreography, costume, and poetry to examine the effects of colorism and skin lightening on the psyches of Black men and women.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zombies
\n<\/span><\/i>2019, 15 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

Winner, Principal Prize Oberhausen International Short Film Festival<\/span><\/p>\n

Set in a hallucinatory Kinshasa, <\/span>Zombies<\/span><\/i> explores the effects of social media and its myopic soft power. Moving through the city\u2019s hair salons, futuristic clubs, street parades, and a river overflowing with garbage, Baloji\u2019s subjects pose for the camera or keep their eyes on their phones. Collaborating with queer performers and street artists in striking costumes made from trash like bottle caps and e-waste, Baloji also amplifies Kinshasans\u2019 spirit of reinvention and disruption in their efforts to redress long-entangled social, political, and environmental injustices. These men and women, he suggests, are the creative resistance to our digital \u201cs<\/span>ervitude volontaire<\/span><\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About the artist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and based in Belgium, Baloji is an award-winning musician, filmmaker, art director, and costume designer. The word \u201cbaloji\u201d refers to occult and evil forces. In Swahili, it initially meant \u201cman of science,\u201d but in colonial times it has been interpreted as \u201cman of occult sciences\u201d\u2014essentially, \u201csorcerer.\u201d This nominal assignment has proved to be both a burden and a gift, driving his visionary interest in the oneiric, magical, and historical. As a filmmaker, Baloji has produced six shorts, including the award-winning <\/span>Zombies<\/span><\/i> and the feature <\/span>Omen<\/span><\/i>, which won the Prix de la nouvelle voix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and is Belgium\u2019s entry for the 2023 Academy Awards. <\/span>Baloji Augurism<\/span><\/i>, a solo exhibition related to <\/span>Omen<\/span><\/i>, is currently on view at the Fashion Museum Antwerp. As a musician, Baloji has released two solo EPs and two critically acclaimed albums, <\/span>HotelL Impala<\/span><\/i> (2007, EMI France) and <\/span>137 Avenue Kaniama<\/span><\/i> (2018, Bella Union).<\/span><\/p>\n

Accessibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

CATE events are presented with real-time captions (CART). Hearing loops, wheelchair accessibility, and companion seating are also available at the Gene Siskel Film Center. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu\/access or write cate@saic.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 29, 6:00 p.m. Critically acclaimed Belgian-Congolese artist and musician Baloji presents a selection of his stunning short films. Operating in the realms between documentary, magical realism, and social critique, Baloji\u2019s hybrid practice explores the transcultural identities of African diasporans and the history and future of the Congo. He often collaborates with other artists […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from An Evening with Baloji\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":9473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[814],"tags":[818,775],"class_list":["post-9453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-814","tag-baloji","tag-democratic-republic-of-the-congo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9453"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9557,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9453\/revisions\/9557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}