Meet the artists! Closing drinks – Precy Numbi, Michiel Robberecht, Mauro Pawlowski a.o.

WORM’s S/ash Gallery presents robotic works by the Congolese artist Precy Numbi, alongside photos by the Belgian writer, film director and photographer Michiel Robberecht. All the while, a live-action film develops in and around the gallery: starring the waste-robot and trash-superhero KIMBALAMBALA. KIMBALAMBALA comes to life, crossing creative swords with several of Rotterdam’s performance artists on his way through the city. How do these alter egos relate to each other? Will it be a duel, or a dance? Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has nothing on this.

Join us on the 24th for the finissage of this extraordinary experience when we will screen the first version of the film, talk with the artists and see a live performance! The artists had many adventures in our city, exploring, interacting and capturing the public space of Rotterdam in an unexpected and new light!

Gallery opens at 19h, start public programme 20h. Free entrance.

THE WORKS

Precy Numbi produced KIMBALAMBALA, a robot-like costume made of car bodies, including their wires and disconnected electronics. It advances without headlights, mirrors, bumpers, driving licences…in the image of society and its “core misconduct.”

Kimbalambala is a vernacular name in Lingala, meaning used vehicle. Many of these African vehicles are no longer wanted in Europe – once their lives there are over, they start a new African life. This causes lots of road accidents, and air pollution. Precy created this work to question the path taken by the world at different levels: technological, ecological and political. Kimbalambala embodies the madness of humans: how will humans and robots coexist? Will pollution dominate the world? Thus, Kimbalambala is also the story of a resistance struggle between people and the machine that surpasses them.

Making this robotic giant was also a positive way to show that creating is always possible, even under miserable conditions. Moreover, by carrying 23 kilos of metal and plastic waste, the artist seeks to show a form of human resistance to the weight that the machine imposes on him today.

Michiel Robberecht uses photography as an important writing tool. His pictures emerge out of spontaneous experiences and encounters with friends and what people and places reveal to him. But often a scene’s true nature is only unveiled after its captured. A friend becomes a character, a barber shop a mystic refuge and a passer-by a ghost. These mirages feed Robberecht with stories he uses in his films and writings.

​Consciously avoiding snapshots of strangers and rather portraying the life of friends and actors, the pictures are born in between documentary and fiction.

Michiel: “I have always been aware of the danger of exoticism. By using photography as an important writing tool, it has been a quest to look for a language that could surpass that but that would still include my own universe, as well as a receptive attitude towards that what surrounds me. And if there’s one thing I have learned is that it is key to open yourself up. Being able to let your surroundings to give things to you rather than you forcing your gaze upon them.”

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS HERE