‘KINSHASA BETA MBONDA - Marie Françoise Plissart’

A dozen or so young percussionists bring music to Barumbu, a poor neighbourhood of Kinshasa. They are the Beta Mbonda, former members of the Kuluna violent gangs. Music has given a new meaning to their lives while cementing their friendship. Moving between odd jobs and musical improvisations with seemingly easy playfulness, they invent rhythms and sing about the hardships of daily life. Like a Greek chorus underscored by traditional instruments or everyday objects, their songs ring out into the air of Kinshasa, echoing a world adrift. 

Born in 1954, Marie-Françoise Plissart is one of the major figures in Belgian photography. Her work has been displayed in Brussels, Liège, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam, The Hague, Berlin and Vienna. She is also a video artist, drawn by the exploration of the urban fabric and its transformations, producing ‘L'occupation des sols’ in 2002, ‘L'Atomium in/out’ in 2006, ‘Le Quatrième mur’ in 2013, and ‘D'errance et de Racines’ in 2014. She has also collaborated on several occasions with the works of François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, notably in ‘Voyages en utopie’ (Casterman, 2000), ‘La Maison Autrique’ (Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2005), and ‘L'Enfant penchée’ (Casterman, 2007).