Katembo shapes dialogue, and the nuances of language, identification and displacement floor Interlude with symbolic connections to house.
Upon strolling into the black room with its comfortable lighting, sturdy eye contact and modelesque silhouettes, you discover 5 starry-eyed Black ladies observing you from screens. A mystifying soundscape showcases lilting music by Montréal’s Hologramme unified by ladies’s narration in English, French, Lingala, Swahili, Kinyarwanda and Nuer. Offered on March 16, 2025, Rose Katembo’s solo exhibition, Interlude, is an immersive audio-visual expertise.
Interlude was chosen for the forty third Worldwide Competition of Movies on Artwork (FIFA). To complete her exhibit, Katembo was mentored by Angela Konrad, the inventive director at Usine C, a performing arts heart in Montréal. The 15-minute-31-second video work conjures house by pointing to language as identification and a vessel for safety and private company.
“Language is such a key factor that typically we overlook in terms of the expertise of integration,” Katembo stated. “Listening to extra individuals discuss in regards to the scenario in Congo gave me a bit extra of a push to be like, kay, that is truly fairly related.”
Nuances amongst language, identification and displacement floor Interlude with symbolic connections to house. Katembo spent her early adolescence as a refugee in Tanzania after her household fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to keep away from the Second Congo Struggle in 1998. When she was eight years outdated, her household was granted asylum in Canada, they usually relocated to Montréal.
That’s the place she discovered English and French. At house, she stayed linked to her dad and mom’ languages, Swahili and Lingala. To finish her exhibit, she channeled the assumption that language will be each a bridge and a barrier.
Interlude was born in 2022 from conceptual artwork images. It’s a process-driven undertaking meant to transcend language and create a visually explanatory narrative. She took inspiration from Cuban author Gustavo Pérez Firmat, who examines the intersection of language and identification, American artist Cindy Sherman and Congolese artist Sammy Bolaji.
Katembo’s follow carries the lineage of Congolese discourse across the ingenuity of language. In a single section, Nas, which is known as after its actress, 5 frames are dually uncovered over Nas’s close-up. The separate frames can signify the multiplicity of identification. Every body overlays the display, then blinks out and refocuses on Nas, which reveals how completely different positions can show nuanced views.
Wrapped in displacement and extroversion, Interlude factors to the method of self-unraveling, which is inspired by lingual code-switching. A number of exposures and overlays evoke a felt intimacy amid the multilingual soundscape, which establishes house by alluding to the intimate consolation in self-awareness regardless of projections and false perceptions of different individuals.
She talked about journey as a means for Black individuals all through the diaspora to increase their worldview. She believes that by highlighting intercultural similarities of Afro-diasporic individuals, they’ll join with empathy and see one another extra absolutely. Her sentiment echoes Pan-Africanism and the significance of understanding African diasporic historical past.
“Being an immigrant pushed me to be an artist and use artwork as a vessel for me to have the ability to translate one thing particular into one thing lovely however that may have a long-lasting influence on individuals,” Katembo stated. “That’s what I feel is admittedly fascinating about artwork as a method of speaking my expertise. I really feel it’s an expertise that’s necessary for individuals to know whether or not you come from that very same background or not.”
Since 1996, conflict within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has precipitated the dying of tens of millions.
Wars within the Congo are the results of political unrest from the mid-Twentieth century and vestiges of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. All of those conflicts have contributed to displacement, terror and instability in central Africa. In line with the Worldwide Group for Migration, about 6.9 million individuals have been internally displaced throughout 26 provinces because the begin of the Rwandan Genocide (1994) and Congo Wars (1996 and 1998).
Displacement and Western exploitation are traumas that divide Afro-descendant individuals. Interlude straight displays the trauma of displacement by encouraging immigrants to be current with their expertise. It gives the usage of language as a device to thrive and maintain private identification throughout chaos and displacement.
A protecting masks is a secondary paintings within the exhibit. The masks recreates the face of Esperance Kokonde, an Interlude actress. Katembo obtained the concept from watching movies like Eyes Broad Shut (1999). Switching between languages evokes the concept of sporting a masks, which interprets to the instruments individuals should use for survival.
“Growing the masks was one of many key issues for me for this set up,” Katembo stated.
“She (Kokonde) instructed me that the second she left house, she needed to put on a masks to ensure individuals might perceive her, so the masks turned a vessel for her to attach simply, and that’s additionally what language will be.”
Initiatives like Interlude showcase the potential power of globalism. With assets just like the web, neighborhood is as shut as a question, language is a leapable hurdle, and house is wherever you might be.