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I go by the name of Mukonkole Shababila
Mukonkole Shababila is my father's real name
But my first name is Trésor (Treasure)
For now, I'm alone in France
I'm alone. And....I try to go on even if I'm by myself. Without family.
I'm 31.
That's it...
I'm from Kinshasa, Congo.
I do not describ myself as a painter
I do not describ myself as a sculptor
I do not say that I'm a photographer
I just say to myself that I'm an artist
I mainly get inspiration from my emotions
my environment, my intentions and what I went trough.
I spent my childhood in a neighborhood that was in the middle of nowhere
my father established an upbringing... to put it in a nutshell : a kind of african upbringing!
With a pinch of dictatorship in it
According to him, I had to read, to initiate inquires into the world... and that was it!
I wanted to find a way to escape this jail
The way I found to distract myself
was to tear pages out of my notebook
And that's how I started to make up toys
I was able to create a whole new world, a world that was mine, where...
I was like a God, that would coordinate everything
I could travel. I could navigate my own ship.
From papers, I could create imaginary scenes
I could make up my own stories
That's when my father understood I was an artist I guess!
And when it was time to go to College, my father accepted my entrance to the Academy of Fine Arts.
From then, I decided to dedicate myself to Art!
What first and foremost attracted me was paint
because I loved colors, what was beautiful, what was attracting.
But when I got my degree, another jail showed up!
This one was the lack of money!
In congo, painting tools are very expensive!
I had troubles buying canvas...
To buy paint...
And I really withdrawed into myself.
I had a hard time existing in the middle of other artists.
So I started to refer to what I was doing as a kid.
I was repeating to myself :
"Nothing will keep you away from being an artist!"
And if there's no equipment....
no tools left to work
To help me expressing myself, I'll always be an artist!
So I started to walk on construction sites
to get used ciment bags
That's what I made my firsts artworks with!
I discover that I could do a kind of show
Just like a magician that would be in the middle of an audience
To make up artworks real fast.
From paper my artwork became commited
I'm mainly talking about 3 elements
carelessness, abandonning, fragility.
Fragility first lies in the material I use
Paper makes me create artworks that are very fragil and short-lived
Intelligence's fragility:
As Man pursuit science's development,
nature's disorder are apparing and increasing.
I notice that France... is one of the country that...
invents too much. It's a very developed country.
All these inventions, advances, generates nature's changes.
Since I came to France...
everytime I pass in front of people... looking into their eyes...
I understand a lot of things.
You can understand what people are going trough
When I meet someone, I just look into his eyes
and I notice they have real problems,
Problems that are not expressed...
I mean, everyone has his own issues!
that's the reason why I add "real" eyes on my portraits.
My very first exhibit
Was about my environment, about where I used to live.
It was a very neglected neighborhood, almost abandonned, So far from everything that we used to call it "Kindele"!
In that neighborhood, everytime it rained, there was erosion.
Houses were distructed slowly to totally disapear...
My approach was to paint in every house that was about to disapear.
I used panoramic shot pictures
to tell this neighborhood's story.
Spiderwed inspired me. it embodies the carelessness state of a place.
I made an exhibit about that at the French Cultural Center (in Congo).
The Governor came.
And in front of all the ambassors he looked very smilling
But then he looked at me and talked in our langage:
"Why are you lowering our country's image?"
At the end on the opening night, police was waiting on me.
I made a very long speech, explaining them very precisely my approach
But I had to buy them over so as they let me go.
They warned me: "if you do that again, we'll arrest you!"
But I cannot stop! That's the foundation of my approach!
I'm not a politician
I'm just an artist inspired by what he sees.
That is my role in the society
The artist is a voice for the voiceless people.
And I know I'm precious for this neighborhood
And I'm precious for my family.
And I am precious for the world.
I'm Trésor (Treasure)
Translation : Meriem Khali-Malone