Kabila Kyowa Stéphane
Conference Report. November 2023
The International Council of Museums of Modern Art (CIMAM) Conference held in Buenos Aires from November 9-11, 2023 was an enriching and stimulating experience, exploring the captivating theme of the "Co-creative Museum: Social Agency, Ethics, and Heritage." This reflection resonates in an exceptional way with contemporary life in Argentina, poetically symbolized by the Tango, an artistic expression deeply rooted in the country's culture.
The conference offered a dynamic platform for discussing the ethical and social issues facing modern art museums today. One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation by Marie Hélène Pereira, who addressed the complex issue of the invisibilization of certain communities, in particular, that of the Vietnamese in Senegal represented in the work of artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen.
Pereira powerfully highlighted the essential role of modern art practitioners in revealing and raising awareness of often neglected realities. The example of the Vietnamese, exposed by Nguyen's art, provided the backdrop for an in-depth discussion on the ethical commitment of modern art practitioners to social issues, an issue that resonates strongly and transcends cultural boundaries.
The conference theme was also strikingly illustrated by the tour's cartography. However, it is crucial to note that, in an ironic way, this mapping may have rendered invisible certain pressing issues rooted in the local reality that hosted us. This observation underlines the importance of constantly questioning pre-established perspectives and narratives, even within the modern art museum community, in order to ensure an authentic and comprehensive representation of cultural diversity.
The conference was a space for dialog and exchange, where practitioners were able to share their experiences and perspectives on how museums can be agents of social and ethical change. The diversity of the speakers and the richness of the discussions contributed to making the conference an unforgettable experience, rich in innovative ideas and inspiring commitments.
In conclusion, CIMAM 2023 succeeded in capturing the spirit of the co-creative museum, highlighting the importance of social agency, ethics and heritage in today's context, while underlining the need for critical reflection and ongoing ethical engagement. The experience will undoubtedly be remembered as a catalyst for change and an inspiration for the future of the modern art museum world.
Bio
Born in 1993 , Kabila is a Congolese curator and researcher working on the African continent. He works and collaborates with the Livingstone office for Contemporary Art in Livingstone (LoCA) , Zambia, and with the Centre d'ar t Waz a in Lubumbashi. Co-founder of NidjeKonnexion, a platform supporting young artists in Lubumbashi, he is also a member of the Lubumbashi working group of the ARAC - Another Ro ad map of Arts Education Africa Cluster, a network of researchers and practitioners investigating the history, policies and possible alternative practices in arts education. At the University of Lubumbashi, he was coordinator of Cogito Litteris, a student association and publication. I’m actually working whit the MARRK Museum in Hamburg.
Post-graduated in Philosophy at the Lubumbashi University and graduted in the MA Curatorial practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen (KMD) in Norway. Kabila's curatorial practice is multidisciplinary, starting from philosophical theories that cut across the humanities and working at the intersection between artistic and curatorial thoughts and practices, opening them up to the public through various mediums, such as dialogues and exhibition productions. He is interested in how the mobility of knowledge, including the movement of people, ideas, objects and crafts affect our everyday lives.
His ongoing project Geometry of desire, Archeology of Art and Knowledge is a way of producing knowledge and rethinking our experiences with words in localities and urgency. This project is a series of discussions performance in different cities to situate art’s practices in relation to contexts linked to different media. It has been presented as participative performance at Waza art center in 2019 and at the Livingstone Office for Contemporary Art in March 2020. This project is inspired by the French’s philosopher René Girard theory of mimetic desire; the notion of the colonial library coined by Mudimbe Valentin congolaise philosopher; the alphabet book (Abécédaire) by Gilles Deleuze and the Knowledge located of Donna Harawary. He recently presented the Resonance Exhibition at the National Art Gallery in Livingstone, Zambia, as one of the outcomes of this project, as well as a catalogue of the same name.