Prisca Munkeni Monnier

Kinshasa, Ex. Zaïre, 1987. The movie La Vie est Belle had just been released. It was the first time in history seeing a Congolese story told by Congolese artists. I was six years old at the time; a daughter of the post-colonialism generation. Even at such a young age, I knew it meant something. The hero of the movie, is a young musician, starring Papa Wemba at the debut of his career who advocates for artists, for the forsaken – as he had once been himself.

In the three decades since the release of La Vie est Belle, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been subjected to endless wars as international mining firms have continuously stolen mineral wealth. Their activities have ravaged the land, which has become seemingly doomed to a sad and devastating fate. But throughout the years and with a transcendent strength, the Congolese people have persisted. They are still standing, against all odds.

“La Vie est Belle is a photographic tale, a visual manifesto inspired from the very same movie that marked my childhood. It is an homage to the popular idiom ‘Article 15,’ or in other words, ‘work with what you have.’ This mantra became the symbol of the eternal Congolese creativity and the ability to go beyond adversity.

La Vie est Belle is more than a Congolese mythology; it is also a human story. It is the story of us, the children of Congo, raising our fists. It is a gesture of revolution to reclaim our land with one weapon: Art.