Full Description
In their internationally acclaimed book, Kinshasa, anthropologist Filip De Boeck and photographer Marie-Francoise Plissart provide a history not only of the physical and visible urban reality that Kinshasa presents today but also of a second, invisible city as it exists in the mind and imagination of its inhabitants. They bring to light a mirroring reality lurking underneath the surface of the visible world and explore the constant transactions that take place between these two levels in Kinshasa's urban scape. With the exhibition that accompanied the release of their Kinshasa book, the authors won a Golden Lion at the 11th International Architecture Bienniale in Venice, 2004. This beautifully illustrated publication is now again made available. Based on lengthy field research, it provides insight into the imaginative ways in which local urban subjects continue to make sense of their worlds and invent cultural strategies to cope with the breakdown of urban infrastructure.
Contents
PREFACE Reflecting on Reflection through Photography and Text
KINSHASA Tales of the Invisible City and the Second World. An Introduction
INVISIBLE CITIES I The 'Giant of Kinshasa', The Story of a Conversion
BEYOND THE GRAVE Memory, Time, Apocalypse and Death in Kinshasa
INVISIBLE CITIES II Omba Shako, The Story of a Street Kid
THE SECOND WORLD Children, the Street and the Occult in Kinshasa
INVISIBLE CITIES III Mado, The Story of a Female Diamond Smuggler
THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE (IM)POSSIBLE
Notes References Index of names Index of illustrations
