Walker Art Center Presents Congo-Based Choreographer Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabakok's Spirited Performance Installation Festival of Lies

“An ethereal figure with a spirit of steel . . . the Congolese choreographer is an intellectual and practical force to be reckoned with.” —The Star, South Africa

The Walker Art Center presents Festival of Lies, a combination soukous party and contemporary dance performance by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula and his ensemble, Les Studios Kabako, Thursday-Saturday, November 1–3, at the Cedar Cultural Center. Presented as part of the Walker’s In:Site/Out Series, Festival of Lies turns the Cedar into a Kinshasa social club and combines a spirited celebration with an intensive performance installation. Linyekula, his five-member company, and an all-star band of local Africans come together to create an immersive, emotionally resonant piece that reimagines an age-old and surprisingly joyous combination of tradition and myth in which villagers gather to drink, dance, feast, and concoct outrageous lies about their leaders. All performances feature musicians Yawo Attivor (voice, acoustic guitar), Siama Matuzungi (electric guitar), Doug Little (saxophones and flute), Patrice Delemos (percussion), Greg Schutte (drums), and Serge Akou (electric bass). African food by Tam Tam’s African Restaurant will be available for purchase.

Saturday’s expanded marathon presentation additionally includes contributions by: Tish Jones, Ananya Chatterjea, Meena Natarajan and Dipankar Mukherjee, Black Arts Fusion, Beverly Cottman, Leah Nelson. Complete performance information follows.

In:Site/Out Series

Festival of Lies

Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako
Featuring music by Yawo Attivor, Siama Matuzungi, Doug Little, Patrice Delemos, Greg Schutte, and Serge Akou
Thursday–Friday, November 1–2, 8 pm
$20 ($18 Walker and Cedar Cultural Center members)
Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis
Tickets are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.

Festival of Lies: Minneapolis

Faustin Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako
Saturday, November 3, 8 pm–2 am
$25 ($21 Walker and Cedar Cultural Center members)
8 pm: Doors open—food & drinks available
9 pm: Show begins
Cedar Cultural Center, 416 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis
Tickets are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.

Saturday’s marathon presentation extends past last call, combining Linyekula’s company with a global mix of leading Twin Cities performing artists in an evening featuring the Festival of Lies performance remixed and expanded to include spoken word, dance, and storytelling by powerful local forces. More food, more drinks, more art, and especially, more lies. Featured performers include Tish Jones, Ananya Chatterjea, Meena Natarajan and Dipankar Mukherjee, Black Arts Fusion, Beverly Cottman, and Leah Nelson. This performance also features music by Yawo Attivor (voice, acoustic guitar), Siama Matuzungi (electric guitar), Doug Little (saxophones and flute), Patrice Delemos (percussion), Greg Schutte (drums), and Serge Akou (electric bass).

Saturday’s performance is copresented with the National Performance Network (NPN) and made possible in part by the NPN Community Fund. Additional support provided by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the National Dance Project, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Performing Arts Fund—a program of Arts Midwest, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Faustin Linyekula

Faustin Linyekula, dancer and choreographer, lives and works in Kisangani, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. After eight years abroad, Linyekula returned to his native Congo in 2001 with a renewed desire to create art there. In the capital city of Kinshasa, he established Les Studios Kabako, a company and art center dedicated to contemporary dance and visual theater. Les Studios Kabako aims to both address artistic and aesthetic issues and foster professional skills through research, creation, and circulation. It provides training opportunities for artists, management, and technical staff with a focus on nurturing artists to explore new ideas and collaborations both at home and abroad.

In summer–fall 2005, Linyekula and Les Studios Kabako were invited to the U.S. by MAPP and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium for creative residencies and performances, which marked the company’s North American debut. Creative residencies were held at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Bates Dance Festival, and the University of Florida’s Center for World Arts. Performances of Triptyque sans titre were presented at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Portland Institute of Contemporary Arts, and University of Florida in partnership with Center for World Arts.

Partnerships have also been established with institutions including: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Strasbourg, France), where Linyekula conducted workshops; Collectif 12 (Mantes-La-Jolie, France), where Les Studios Kabako’s manager stayed for two months in 2002 as part of a management and production traineeship; Centre National de la Danse (Paris, France); KAAY FECC dance festival (Dakar, Senegal); GAARA Dance Company (Nairobi, Kenya); and members of The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium: Center for World Arts at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL); Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME); and MAPP International Productions (NYC).

With support from local and international partners Les Studios Kabako has presented Spectacularly Empty (2001), Triptyque sans titre (2002), Spectacularly Empty II (2003), Radio Okapi (2004), Le Festival des Mensonges/Festival of Lies (2005), The Dialogue Series: i. Franco (2006), and The Dialogue Series: iii. Dinozord (2006), and has conducted various international projects and collaborations with artists from France, Morocco, Ethiopia, Sweden, and South Africa.

Recognized as a leading African choreographer, Faustin Linyekula has been a judge in the 2004 Rencontres Choreographiques Africaines in Madagascar and a facilitator for “International Dialogues” at the Kaay Fecc Festival in Senegal. In June 2005, he curated a series of Contemporary African Dance, “Le Cargo,” at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. He has been commissioned to create work for the Avignon Festival, Theatre de Suresnes in Paris, the Tanzwochen Festival in Austria, and by Peter Sellars of the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna.

The 2007 tour of Festival of Lies is a project of the African Consortium, a coalition of 11 diverse arts institutions, including the Walker Art Center, advancing a dynamic exchange of arts and ideas between artists, arts organizations, cultural and other institutions of Africa and the United States.