JOHN K COBRA
/ SPACES OF CORELLATION
My name is Roland Gunst, also known as John K Cobra. I am a self-taught conceptual artist, filmmaker and musician of Belgian-Congolese (Democratic Republic of the Congo) descent. I live and work between Belgium and Singapore.
My work emerges from an autobiographical perspective, drawing on my experience of being raised in a bicultural family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before migrating to Belgium at around the age of twelve, where I confronted racism in all its forms daily.
Through performances, films, music, sculptures, installations and mixed media, I explore Afro-European liberation narratives and strategies to counter the oppression of identity and the trauma instilled by capitalism and its rigid categories and hierarchies. Even spatial architecture (monuments, avenues, etc.) is used to create social groups that serve capitalism. Architecture is always imbued with ideology.
My strategies are based on what Prof. Cecil Fromont calls 'spaces of correlation'; spaces of similarity between European and African cultural traditions which, despite developing separately, used similar concepts of liberation and critique. This creates a unifying fabric for humanity.
By merging social architecture (communities) and spatial architecture (habitats), I create a new type of fluid trans-architecture that functions as a site of memory and critique of oppression. It is an organic architecture of flesh. A moving body as a habitat.
By creating disruptive hybrid concepts and media, I challenge the boundaries that define the body, identity, community, habitat, culture, history, and human existence.
Drawing inspiration from African and European art history, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, mythology and spiritual and medicinal practices, I revisit ancient concepts that remain highly relevant in solving contemporary societal challenges.
My work involves symbolic materials representing the 'spaces of correlation' between Europe and Africa, including human hair, copper, iron, aluminium, rubber and wood. These materials are symbols of power that have been employed in both colonial and anti-colonial strategies.
My research is a collaboration with Esther Severi (*1983), a dramaturge from Brussels.