Monday Lectures at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen is pleased to invite you all to the public lecture “Journey to the Heart of the Kuba Kingdom” by curator Kabila Kyowa Stéphane.
This lecture will focus on the textile productions of the Kuba Kingdom, known as **Kasaian Velvet**, and in particular its low-tech and eco-friendly technologies. The Kuba Kingdom is located in the Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has a rich history of cultural, political and artistic tradition, rooted in the pre-colonial kingdom, which flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries.
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Kabila is a Congolese curator and researcher born in Dubie in 1993 and working on the African continent, with a Master's degree in Curatorial Practice from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Bergen. A member of CIMAM and AAMC. He collaborates with the Livingstone Office for Contemporary Art (LoCA) in Livingstone, Zambia, and the Waza Art Center in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo. He is a consultant for Agency Kolkwen. Co-founder of NidjeKonnexion, a support platform for young artists in Lubumbashi. He is also a member of ARAC - Another Roadmap of Arts Education Africa Cluster, a network of researchers and professionals studying history, politics and possible alternative practices in the field of arts education. While completing his bachelor's and postgraduate degrees in Philosophy at the University of Lubumbashi, he was the coordinator of Cogito Litteris, a student association at the Faculty of Arts and Letters. Kabila has worked on the conception and development of exhibitions around the world. He is currently a Greta Henkel Foundation provenance research fellow at the Museum Am Rothenbaum in Hamburg, Germany, on a collection from the Kasai region in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
His curated exhibitions include Bakuba Art Geometry of Life, Germany, Hambourg 2025; Bosolo, Kolkwen, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2023; Resonance, Zambia, 2023; Nzito, Kolkwen of the Lubumbashi Biennial, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2022; Shifting the Gaze, LoCA, Zambia, 2022; A Glimmer of Resistance , LoCA & National Art Gallery, Zambia, 2020; The Sun Will Always Shine, LoCA & National Art Gallery, Zambia, 2020.
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Image copyright: MARKK/Photo Paul Schimweg
Mgelambine/ House of Queens; by Futur-velours.com, 2024; composition raphia textil
202,5 / 153 cm;