The Yerba Center for the Arts continues its focus on international dance, this week featuring Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. This is Linyekula's second YBCA performance, and he'll be presenting a new work, Festival of Lies, which features a special six-hour marathon performance on Sunday (Nov. 10).
"Linyekula is one of the most extraordinary choreographers working today. Festival of Lies is a seminal work that envelops the audience in the experience of a Congolese Festival. It's extraordinary and creative," says YBCA director Ken Foster.
Festival of Lies was inspired by the idea of memory and collective amnesia within the context of the political, social and economic realities in Congolese culture. Linyekula incorporates fragments of memory and propaganda to create an evening-length piece that reflects his experiences growing up in Africa. Last year, in an interview with local dance scholar Toba Singer, Linyekula said, "I was born in Ubunvu in the Northeast corner of Congo. It was at the time when the country had just been renamed Za•re, reflecting the consolidation of the murderous and treacherous Mobutu regime, which came to power in the early 60s, after the assassination of Patrice Lamumba. Mobutu was installed by the colonialists who saw their interests threatened by Lamumba and what he stood for."
Though many consider Linyekula's work political, he has a different perspective when examining it himself. "The one thing for me is that I, as an individual, have my own relationship to my country. I respond a certain way. My response is not political, in that it's not a programmatic response. But my work poses questions."
For Linyekula, the personal is political. "I am showing the individual in a context where there is no space for individuals. It's just as important as the mass approach that politics implies. I speak in my own name, not in the name of all Congolese, or worse, all Africans."
Linyekula was not allowed to go to college in his native country, so in 1993, he went to study in Kenya. He continued his studies in London, but was forced to return to Kenya because "England viewed me with suspicion, having lived in two countries on the African continent." Linyekula later returned to Congo, started his own company, and opened an art center called Les Studios Kabako.
Understandably, Linyekula finds challenges presenting his work to non-African audiences. "The problem with audiences in these countries is that they come with an expectation of what an African dance piece should look like, who an African should be. In instances where those expectations are less defined, the connections tend to be more successful."
He notes the paradox. "I sit with the irony that my inspiration comes from Africa, but the money comes from performing in Europe, where the work is filtered through screens of expectations about Africans and black people that the audience brings with them."
When asked about his artistic trajectory, Linyekula responded, "I am always becoming what I'm supposed to be. When the journey is complete, or I am old enough to link these things together, perhaps I will know the answer to that question. I understand that even at its most revolutionary, art can only save the individual who, perhaps in concert with other such individuals, can save the world.
"The question of the individual is central, and I am very conscious of treating performers as individuals, and approach each piece with that in mind. Should I be without one of the dancers in a piece, I cannot substitute someone else. The piece is lost and cannot be performed."
Festival of Lies will be presented as an evening-length work Thursday through Friday, then as a marathon six-hour event on Saturday. The Saturday performance features a visual installation and is designed to be a community event, local performers have been invited to help celebrate. There will be a live band, and food and drinks will be served. Linyekula said, "Mine is the individual voice that is part of this society and its history. I pose the question, 'What is my space in the middle of all this?' There is this world that is overwhelming, and creating even a temporary shelter is meaningful for me, because it touches on something in the individual."
Faustin Linyekula at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum (701 Mission St., SF), Nov. 8-10. Tickets ($26-$30): (415) 978-ARTS or www.ybca.org.