Joseph Kasau | Residency

October - December 2023 — Visual Arts

Congolese artist Joseph Kasau will be an artist in residence at La Becque, near Geneva, from 8 October – 1 December 2023. During his residency, Joseph will continue work on his ongoing project “Nakatala / Naké tala”, which reflects on his own development as an artist and explores the need to renounce the old in order to encounter and experience the new.

The project emerges from the pandemic as a reaction to physical isolation and increased digitalisation. Stuck at home in Lubumbashi, Joseph found himself contemplating the paradox of being connected online, but socially isolated. He explains that “the social rupture caused by social networks and the interconnectedness it brings weakens in many ways the social body. From here, a question arose in my thinking: How, through art, can I reconnect with the social experience? How can I experiment in my work with a form of materiality that can become the starting point of something more human, more organic and less digital?” To this end, Joseph has been experimenting with different media and discussing social networks with other artists, curators and academics.

BIOGRAPHY

Based in Lubumbashi, DRC, Joseph Kasau is a visual artist, filmmaker and author who addresses the complexity of memory and identity in a post-colonial, urban context. His productions are highly attentive to social interactions, highlighting power relations and proposing alternatives for change and assembly. Joseph holds a degree in Information and Communication Sciences from the University of Lubumbashi, with a specialisation in Performing Arts (audiovisual, cinema and theatre). Joseph is a fellow of the Delfina Foundation Residency in Londo, the Trame 2022 residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the tri-continental Quilombo residency and exhibition project (2021 – 2023), and the Afro Ndi Luso Residency in Zambia (2021). He has worked with several local platforms and organisations including the Kidogo Kidogo Films festival, Lubumbashi Biennale and Waza Art Center. Joseph also works in connection with City Salts (Basel), Lago Mio (Lugano), Archives Books (Berlin), Museum of Tervuren (Belgium), and Modzi Arts (Lusaka). Joseph is co-founder of the collective Nidjekonnexion, a platform supporting research, education and contemporary art creation in the city of Lubumbashi, DR Congo.