AGENCE POUR L'HABITAT KINOIS NÉOLIBÉRÉ
L’agence se porte sur la tête, à la façon des petits magasins ambulants portés sur la tête des “Shayers”. Elle propose une multiplicité de parcelles à construire, mettant en avant l’agencement des espaces collectifs par rapport aux espaces privés. Chaque maison porte les couleurs d’un pagne du moment, illustrant l’air du temps et ses figures emblématiques (Que chaque homme ait sa femme, que chaque femme ait son mari, Chantier...). Le chapelet de petites maisons de carton devient le vocabulaire formel d’une grammaire destinée à appréhender ce qui serait la parcelle imaginaire de nos spectateurs. Le but de l’agence est de promouvoir la “plus-value” que représente le savoir-vivre-ensemble. Cette “plus-value” ne pourrait-elle pas s’exporter vers l’occident?

REAL ESTATE AGENCY FOR A NEOLIBERATED KINSHASA HABITAT
This one-of-a-kind real estate agency was made for head portage. Its staff (the artists) carried it on their heads, much as shayers (itinerant merchants) carry their wares through the streets on Kinshasa. The agency’s wares were properties: tracts of land and models for houses that could be built on these tracts. The properties on offer were both private and public, underscoring, once again, how thin the line can be between these two domains. Each house model bore the colours of a wax cloth currently in fashion among the ladies of Kinshasa and/or referencing a saying common on the city’s streets (“to every man his woman” and “to every woman the business of keeping the home fires burning”). The houses on offer were signified by small cardboard models, which could be moved around to construct each client’s ideal homestead. The act of “building” the dream homestead was akin to a sentence, with a distinctive vocabulary (the houses) and grammar (the client’s take on putting them together). The sentence, and the agency more broadly, functioned in direct response to Alain Bihr’s critique of neoliberalism’s “new/lingo”. They underscored how much there would be to gain – what the profit margins would be – were the city remodelled to match the dreams of its inhabitants, enhancing their ability to live well together. At the same time, they posed a question: might the art of living together developed here, in this African city, be exported to Europe?