SPEECH FOR A MELTING STATUE

In June 2020, thousands of people took to the streets in Brussels to make a fist against police brutality and institutional racism in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. For a moment, it seemed that some demonstrators would take down the statue of colonial king Leopold II in a nearby square. For now the sculpture is still standing, but an optimistic poet already prepares her speech for the day it will be removed.

Archival images of colonial monuments that arrive in a museum in Kinshasa, RDC are paired with a ceremonial text by poet Marie Paule Mugeni. The voice-over presents the official removal of a Brussel’s colonial statue as if scheduled for the very next day. However, in opposition to Kinshasa, there are no concrete plans for the statues’ takedown up to now.