‘PALIMPSEST OF THE AFRICA MUSEUM - Matthias De Groof & Mona Mpembele’

“Palimpsest of the Africa museum” documents the renovation of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (now Africa Museum) as an esthetic mourning process, shows the complexity of the alterations and reveals through the eyes of the Belgian African Diapsora what the renovation really puts at stake: the decolonization of the Self.

The screening will be followed by a debate with Matthias De Groof and  Mona Mpembele, Jean Bofane (writer), Bambi Ceuppens (anthropologist, RMCA), moderated by Ayoko Mensah (programmer, Bozar Africa Desk).

Matthias De Groof is a researcher at the Collegium for Advanced Studies in Helsinki. He has a strong interest in film, Congo and (post)colonialism. He holds a Master’s in Philosophy (KUL), International Relations (UCL) and Cinema Studies (UA). He studied African Studies at UMU (Uganda) and became a Fulbright and BAEF visiting scholar at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His PhD in Cinema Studies looked at African cinema. As a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), he studied postcolonial film theory at the Antwerp University where he also taught World Cinema, Aesthetics and Curating & Exhibiting. His scholarly work has been published in Third Text and Columbia University Press amongst others. He is regularly asked to talk and write in non-academic contexts and to curate film programs. His own films have been presented i.a. at the IFFR, Media City, Cannes Pan-African Film Festival and the San Francisco Art Institute. His book on Lumumba’s Iconography is about to be published.

Mona Mpembele was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo out of diplomatic parents. After having started law school in Belgium, she obtained a degree in communication at EFAP. In 2010, by creating Afrikavision Media, the first Belgian media platform for diversity, she got closer to the media world. The success of Afrikavision Media has opened the doors of Belgian, French and international television. Today Mona produces and broadcasts films, reports and documentary movies on an international level for Afrikavision Media. Every month she hosts the program Afrika Europa in the European Parliament, broadcasted throughout Africa and elsewhere.