(Pas) Mon Pays, Part I and II

Spoken: Dutch/French. Subtitles: English.

Bie Michels was born and raised in Congo, in a house on the campus of the current University of Kinshasa (former ‘Lovanium’, the first university in the country, 1954-1971). As the title indicates, ‘(Pas) Mon Pays, Part I and II’, the art project contains of two parts. The first talks about a colonial monument in Mechelen and Michels’ efforts to decolonize this statue with a group of Belgian citizens with Congolese roots. The second shows the artist’s visit to Congo. ‘(Pas) Mon Pays’ is based on her personal history, as an attempt to let the past encounter the present and see further into the future of the postcolonial situation, in both Congo as in here.