Prisca Munkeni Monnier

“My depictions want to express the traumas that we inherited that became part of our identities over the years and that we are continuously brushing off. I want to bring them to life, give them a space, respecting all forms of otherness. It’s a battle against time, space and everything fading away. One last tribute before it all falls into oblivion. One last attempt to keep a memory of, a trace of I create because I am trying to remember… May be I will know why I am angry. May be I’ll be free.”

— Prisca Munkeni Monnier

Prisca’s photography practice is profoundly influenced by the international nature of her upbringing and childhood. She was born in Brussels, grew up in Kinshasa, became Congolese and then studied in South Africa before setting up her practice and life between Marseille and Kinshasa.

This complex web of memories, family and heritage narrates her images that explore her identity as an African creator and woman whose memories are interlinked with the politics and history of the continent.

The artist’s explorations of identity manifest in many forms, including her childhood memories of comparing her hair and looks to the ones seen in Western magazines, as seen in her Suki series. She delves deep into the Westernised idea of beauty and looking presentable, which she sees manifesting as a part of the African canon and identity.

And this is a fervent wish for an artist who has struggled with the issue of identity throughout her life. “The country that saw me born is not mine,” she points out. “The state that saw me grow up has disappeared. The nation of my passport barely exists. [What remains is] 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, this is the breeding ground of my art, this propensity to make dialogue frozen moments, prolong their existence to infinity, force them to speak in an environment saturated with elements, lights.”