First Serie: Democratic Republic of Congo Art

The art scene in Congo has been dormant for sometime due to the support from authorities. The artistic fraternity in the past,was very diverse and well supported by the government.

However,this is not just only in Congo, but the entire Africa-the development of local talent has not been nurtured to develop it. But, its not the case in developed countries, as they've come to learn, that Art is a tool for innovation and social transformation. Thus, various grants can easily be accessed to develop various projects.

The African governments have not been able to realise the power of Art in social transformation-incentives like grants and studios are not available. This could also be attributed  to the common belief by most African families-that Artists are losers, and are never taken serious or supported. 

However, when you look back in the books of Art history, you'll find that Great Artists like Pablo Picasso, van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, etc. never had it easy. Its the belief in their work that kept them going...

I'm not trying to compare myself to those great artists but encouraging up-coming artists to not give up-its all about passion.

Today Artists have many resources at their disposal to help them experiment with different styles. I think what is very important for any artist, is to find their style that people/audience can relate them to.

I think I'm one of those artists still looking for a particular style that people can associate me with-as Its not also bad to have many styles that can be used in different projects.

At the moment, I consider myself a multi-artists that uses art for different situations. This particular Art is targeting Congolese youth to stop, think, experiment, and also realise that Lingala language(Congolese language) can also be artistic.

After researching around, I was disappointed to find that visual Lingala is almost extinct. The other concern is post-conflict Democratic Republic of Congo; after being a victim of occupation for over 20 years, the Lingala has lost authenticity-in the eastern part of Congo, Swahili(bad Swahili) seems to have become the official language used by most communities.

I look forwards to developing this project further into different series-this being the first series, I hope to make it better as it progresses.

I hope to develop this art further to a standard that can appeal to everyone.
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