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Finding UBATIZO is a horror-fiction artistic research and film project about the toxic ecological, health, and mental health situation in Lubumbashi. This collaboration is gradually evolving into the making of a short film, driven by a research project and a wealth of collaborations.
The most notable collaboration features directors Gustave Fundi Mwamba (FM) and Antje Van Wichelen, whose personal, cultural, and artistic backgrounds complement each other. For research, the makers have turned to the people of Lubumbashi, Kipushi and Kolwezi, their doctors, geologists, activists and artists, and specifically the community in the Katuba neighborhood where their hub, art center Biasasa led by FM, is based.
Over the years, the work has been significantly enriched during workshops and public debates like the one they held with the support of Picha in the 2022 Biennale. It became clear that their topic touches every life in Lubumbashi. Everyone is concerned.
Parts of the tests and trials may have been joyful — luckily — turning neighborhood kids into zombies, for example, and inventing symptoms of a strange disease; others confront us with the gravity of the situation. We think of artistic research where the makers manage to develop 16mm experimental film in the black toxic water of a family’s well, or the total absence of any effect when putting film strips for weeks in the soil of the nearby Kipushi desert — which indicates the absence of any life form in that land. This line of research is inspired by the international community of filmlabs.org, and specifically LABO BxL in Brussels, Belgium, of which Antje is a member. Other partnerships in Brussels involve the ERG school of arts with animation teacher Alexander Schellow and a public sharing moment at Wiels.
This year, Radio Télé Kipushi ya Maboke (RTKM) will support the research with interviews on toxicity, health, and fiction.
Finding UBATIZO research has been shown in exhibitions at the Lubumbashi Biennale and Kochi Biennale 2022 and in Kunsthalle Mainz – Unextractable. Sammy Baloji invites, 2023. The Belgian French Community (FRART) supports the research project. At the same time, the short film has so far received support from VAF and OIF, with Rosa Spaliviero of Twenty Nine Studio and Eric Bahati /Erickey XY 93 as producers.
