Missa Utica

Missa Utica aims to elaborate a new chapter in an evolving body of work: Fragments of Interlaced Dialogues, spanning several years of artistic research and production, developed by Sammy Baloji in dialogue with a range of Kongo objects gathered in Europe over the last five centuries and now collected in different museums. After chapters in Firenze, Paris and other key cities in Kongo’s history, this chapter leads the artist to Utica, Tunisia where, in the 16th century, the first African bishop was appointed following numerous exchanges between Christian Europe and the Kongo Kingdom. In Missa Utica, the historical research creates the foundation for an interdisciplinary artpiece that merges the pœtic text written by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, musical creation by Pytshens Kambilo and Barbara Drazkov, the performance of Bwanga Pilipili and finally the scenographic installation by Sammy Baloji. Those elements remain in a constant dialogue which make the artwork difficult to classify as it oscillates between concert, art installation and performance.