Movie-Database: Movies
SYSTEM K
Credits
Name: SYSTEM K
Country: Frankreich
Year of publication: 2019
Format: DCP
Color: color
Language : OF frz. m. engl UT
Duration: 93 Minuten
Direction: Barret, Renaud
Guest: Barret, Renaud
Abstract
Monkey’s skulls, electronic waste, machetes or their own bodies – there’s no limit to the materials used by the street artists portrayed in the documentary SYSTEM K for their art. Operating far from the mainstream, they use the streets of the Congolese capital Kinshasa as a stage for their performances, sculptures and visual art that transcends boundaries. The avant-garde artists’ performances are highly political and they face the constant threat of being arrested, interrogated by intelligence services, or even tortured. Their work predominantly deals with socially critical themes like corruption and exploitation, the privatisation of water and collective trauma, and they call out those who profit from them. Their country’s history and the repression within it are other key themes of their work, as is a society torn apart by extreme poverty and armed conflicts, where art is considered by many to be an unaffordable luxury.