Prisca Munkeni Monnier

Prisca Munkeni Monnier is a Zairean artist based in Marseille and Kinshasa. She grew up in Kinshasa in 1984, becoming Congolese throughout history in 1997 and Studied in South Africa. "The country that saw me born is not mine, the state that saw me grow up has disappeared, the nation of my passport barely exists. Remain my culture, in memory weakened by the jolts of history, and whose survival is based only on a handful of people, an oral tradition whose breath is dwindling. Without doubt is this the breeding ground of my art, this propensity to want to make dialogue frozen moments, prolong their existence to infinity, force them to speak in an environment saturated with elements, lights. Over time, objects, places or characters through which our identity is forged, dissipate, memories with diaphanous forms. The weight of their senses, frustrations or pride engendered slowly bury themselves in our daily lives, at the gates of oblivion. And memory, stuck in this daily loses the thread: why we cry, why we love, why we live." -- Prisca Munkeni Monnier