Grainy footage of mostly abandoned copper mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Katanga province and the soundtracks of political speeches provide the setting for Sammy Baloji’s commentary on the failed promises of past and present leaders and the recoiling of time in a postcolonial nation-state. The sinuous movements of the brilliant dancer and choreographer Faustin Linyekula against the backdrop of a deindustrialized wasteland offer a close reading of how the body inserts itself into the rewriting of history and the reimagining of time. Rather than a linear march forward in time, Mémoire is a study in the torques and tensions of everyday survival.
