A note from the Belgian embassy in Angola, to which the Lusa agency had access, says that Kristof Degrauwe worked between 1999 and 2000 at the Ethnographic Museum, in DRCongo, having chosen to take a series of photos of the Congolese masks that were stored (hidden) ) in the museum's reserves.
Kristof Degrauwe, advances the note, specifically intended to give a photographic interpretation of the sacred objects, and, "without denying their ethnographic value", the artist "played freely with these masks", bringing them "to life in front of his camera with help of young models to capture the profound meaning of each mask ".
"The exhibition in Lubumbashi, in June 2000, which presented not only the photographs, but also the masks themselves, was a great success for the museum, which at that moment woke up from a long sleep of immobility", the note says.
The same exhibition was also shown in 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria, where the first workshops on "the mask and the subconscious" were held.
"We are very proud to be able to present this series now in Luanda. Part of this edition of the exhibition is made up of masks typical of Congolese culture and part of masks typical of Angolan culture", informs the document.
Alongside the exhibition, some activities will be held, namely yoga workshops, conducted by Kristof Degrauwe, open to the public, with the theme "Le Geste Kongo / Yoga D'Afrique".
The hour and a half session will consist of the experiment of "some postures derived from certain states of the Congo" through which the "language of the coded gestures of Kongo art" will be discovered.
The exhibition will be open to the public from April 20 to August 31, from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, with the entry price of 140 kwanzas for nationals and 300 kwanzas for foreigners, with the opening session of the exhibition , on the 20th of April, reserved for guests.
