FOUMBAN IS WAKANDA
“Foumban is Wakanda” is an Afrofuturist multidisciplinary project that connects the African past with the future, and purposely ignores the present which reduces the millennial experience of Africa to its encounter with the West. The project was exhibited on the 24th of October 2021, in the cultural place Quartier Mozart located in Cameroon.
About the project
Wakanda is this imaginary country from the American film Black Panther released in 2018. This rich and powerful African country that has remained hidden for fear of knowing the fate of today’s Africa, said to be underdeveloped. For the film director Jean-Pierre Bekolo, this fantasized country has indeed existed in various forms and in various parts of Africa as history tells us.
With @jeanpierrebekolo, a group made of artists, architects, curators, filmmakers, teachers, engineers, plastic artists … chose Foumban, the capital of the Bamoun country under the reign of King Njoya, inventor of Shu Mom writing as their point of reference. departure of an African response to the film Black Panthers.@jeanpierrebekolo (film director), @obolopascale (filmmaker / curator), @ mr.abali.a (architect / scenographer), @ moussa.alioum (visual artist),Idrissou Njoya (art historian) @angeljustngadjeu (visual artist), @klaasvonkarlos (director).
In this project, I developed with Mònica Rikic some electronic circuits and mappings to complement some installations with technology.
- Interactive painting: I created an interactive painting with the artwork of Angel Just. When you touched some parts of a canvas, some parts of the painting were projected.
- Plants that talk: I put some proximity sensors in the leaves of a plant and when you approached some sounds were activated.
- Immersive sound room: The room had a led strip animated with the shape of one symbol of the Shu Mon alphabet on the wall. Also two loudspeakers with the sound of a healing ritual. So when the person layed down on the floor could feel the vibration. This installation was an idea of Pascale Obolo.
- Mask with leds: I put an animated led strip in the mask made by Alioum Moussa.
- Mapping in a mask: I created a mapping in a mask drawn in a fabric by Alioum Moussa. The content projected was from John Carlos and mine.
