SI FOOT=NEOLIBERALISM, ALORS...
Le néolibéralisme et sa novlangue nous ont permis de créer un langage à nous huit. Nous avons crée deux actions artistiques se déroulant dans le quartier de Lingwala, utilisant comme mode opératoire la récupération et le détournement du lexique néolibéral.
La première intervention “Si football=néolibéralisme, alors...” s’inscrivait dans la coupe du monde de football et proposait d’ouvrir le dialogue, de donner l’envie et les moyens aux habitués de la place Comet de nous questionner à travers un diaporama et un ensemble de panneaux-questions avec lesquels nous circulions. Cette action nous a permis de nous approprier ce langage économique et de jalonner notre terrain d’interventions artistiques auprès du public local.



IF SOCCER = THEN NEOLIBERALISM
The 2010 chapter of the neoliberal machine coincided with the 2010 FIFA soccer World Cup. This provided fertile ground for the EzaOKUP team to further question the nature, form and goals of neoliberal rhetoric. The crew decided to create its own take on neoliberal lingo(s) by way of an invention/ translation practice centring on futbol: to create what they dubbed a “footballistique” language:
In this language, the market (or wenze in Lingala) = the stadium, capital = a soccer ball, the State = the referee.
The final matches of the World Cup provided an ideal opportunity to present this new neoliberal lexicon to large groups of people living in and moving through Lingwala. Despite chronic electricity shortages, EzaOKUP managed to arrange for the matches to be projected on a large screen in a public space, la Place Comet, where people gathered to watch. During half time, the EzaOKUP team interrupted the broadcast. Advertising was replaced by the crew's “footballistique” translations written on cardboard signs and paraded, in carefully choreographed sequences, in front of the projector light. Here are some examples of what the signs read:
FootballisticPanelscorrect
These interruptions prompted audience questions, discussions, dialogue about the economy, politics and social developments.