JOHN K COBRA
/ SPACES OF CORELLATION
Roland Gunst, also known as John K Cobra, is a self-taught, theory-based conceptual artist, filmmaker and musician of Belgian-Congolese (Democratic Republic of the Congo) descent. He currently lives and work between Belgium and Singapore.
His work emerges from an autobiographical perspective, drawing on his 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 he confronted racism in all its forms daily.
Through writing, lectures, performance, film, music, sculpture, installation and mixed media, he explores Afro-European liberation narratives and strategies to counter the oppression of identity and the body, and the trauma instilled by capitalism and its rigid categories, hierarchies and oppressing architectural spaces.
His 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, employe(d) comparable concepts of liberation and critique. This creates a unifying fabric for humanity.
By merging social architecture (communities) and spatial architecture (habitats), he creates a new, fluid type of 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 designed to support and heal all bodies.
Through the creation of disruptive hybrid concepts and media, he challenges the boundaries that define the body, identity, community, habitat, culture, history and human existence.
Drawing inspiration from the art, anthropology, psychology, history, philosophy, mythology, spiritual practices and medicine of Africa and Europe, he revisits ancient concepts that remain highly relevant in addressing contemporary societal challenges.
His work incorporates symbolic materials that represent the 'spaces of correlation' between Europe and Africa. These materials include rubber, human hair, copper, iron, aluminium and wood. These materials symbolise power and have been used in both colonial and anti-colonial strategies.
He is collaborating with Esther Severi (*1983), a dramaturge and PHD-researcher from Brussels, on his research.