Régis Samba-Kounzi
Régis Samba-Kounzi (he|him) is a visual artist and photographer born in Brazzaville and working between Paris and Kinshasa.
His multidisciplinary practice, including collage, sound, video, text and installation, focuses on disadvantaged social groups, relegated to the margins of colonial and post-colonial history.
He took his experience as a starting point to develop a visual archive entitled Minorities Project that questions the notions of coloniality and identity from the prism of AIDS. He was an activist for many years as an actif member of Act Up-Paris.
His work has recently been exhibited at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, at the MUCEM in Marseille in the group exhibition HIV/AIDS: the epidemic is not over, and at the Palais de Tokyo in the group exhibition “Exposé.es” based on the book “What AIDS did to me. Art et activisme à la fin du XXe siècle” by Elisabeth Lebovici.
www.regissambakounzi.com
@projetminorites
Statement
The visual archive named Minorities Project is a collection of portraits by Régis Samba-Kounzi. It is shaped by an aesthetic of plasticity and combativeness, which pays homage and justice to the populations most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, of which LGBTIQ+ Africans are part.
These photos reveal a combative Africa, breaking with the dominant representations often misérable. They remind us that activists and actors in African countries will always be in the best position to identify the obstacles to their own well-being in order to fight against the dehumanization and inequalities of life that they experience.
Junior, jeune homme bisexuel, marié et parent &
Benjamin, jeune homme homosexuel, militant associatif, commune de Barumbu, Kinshasa, RDC
Tirage Canson photo satin, contrecollage alu, série Lolendo, projet Minorités, 2015