Kwanga is a Congolese manioc bread. In the Kikongo language, kwanga means 'life' or 'bread', and refers to the African and European concept of daily bread: a nutritious staple consumed daily by the majority of a country's population. Kwanga has the same characteristics as white Congolese rubber. Like liquids, kwanga bars can be moulded into any shape. Like solids, they are resilient and can always return to their original shape. Consuming the bars liquefies your cultural, national and gender identity, making it fluid — the original state of all humans. Kwanga is the fuel that powers the reconstruction of an Afropean physical and metaphysical reality, reconnecting us with the origins of Europeans and Africans. Kwanga bars represent a correlation between African and European cultural traditions. Rubber, once a symbol of colonial domination, becomes a symbol of power. 

Afropean sacred clowns have a fluid identity. Their bodies are made of Kwanga. They consume Kwanga bars to keep their bodies and minds in a liquid state.

During their masquerades, they contort their bodies into thousands of positions and postures, resembling shape-shifters. Each position expresses a unique identity and a reflection or critique of identity and the human condition. Their masquerade represents identity in constant development — a fluid identity. Through their contortions and critical reflection, sacred clowns liquefy reality and manipulate physical and metaphysical matter to redefine it. 

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Kwanga bars are shaped like one of the three Afropean palaces that were to be built in Brussels, the Belgian capital, in Lion Phase 2, Act II. Their shapes are inspired by ancient royal thumbs from Congo and Belgium, and are intended as portals or vehicles to another state, form or concept of existence. The palaces were used as spaces of transformation and communion, where the population would be transformed into Afropeans. 

By consuming Kwanga, the human body becomes a portal to another state of existence.

By consuming Kwanga, the human body becomes a portal or vehicle to another state, form or concept of existence or reality. 

SHOWS

The Kwanga bars series was exhibited for the first time at Latitudes Art Fair 2020.

From April to December 2021, this installation will be exhibited at the Europe exhibition at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, at Mucem in Marseille, France and at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal. From September 2021, it will form part of a major exhibition of my work at the deSingel Centre of Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. There, my new performance Spirit Capital, which explores fluid cultural, national and gender identity, will be presented.