Echangeur

Spooken: French/Lingala. Subtitles: Dutch.

www.echangeur.be 

In the streets of the metropolis of Kinshasa, young Congolese imagine their version of the colonial past. While archival footage shows how the statue of explorer Stanley is being towed by a crane, a Lumumba imitator is looking for former president Mobutu. A man scrubs manhole covers until the word 'Leopoldville' becomes legible again. A boy with a whitewashed face, tropical helmet and whip, dances with ghosts on a roof. After the Democratic Republic of Congo gained independence, the Belgian colonial monuments were removed from Kinshasa's public squares. Today they stand side by side in the Congolese National Museum. In Échangeur,  an imaginary city emerges around an empty pedestal, where archival footage, performances and present-day Kinshasa interact.