Mawe
Primo Mauridi
Video installation, 10 min
Following an awakening ritual, Nyabhingi, the goddess of abundance, rises from the Lingombe Mazuku breath. Her mission is to heal Goma from destruction and restore ecological balance. She invokes Lingombe’s wrath, the spirit of discipline that corrects all injustices. Lingombe spits fire and mahindule (lava) to warn people of their transgressions against the philosophy and practice of Buhuma, responsible for the relations between men and all living beings! Based on the ancient ritual around the Nyiragongo volcano, Mawe explores new forms of indigenous memory and knowledge. Between knowledge and mythology lies the question of temporality, in which the future of the past and the past of the future are seen as one. This multidimensional understanding of time offers a paradigm. It is consistent with local and indigenous mythologies and practices. It is a modality that helps to preserve the intergenerational continuity of indigenous cultures and prepare the next generation for the challenges they will face in a globalized world.
Primo Mauridi, originally from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, is a photographer and filmmaker whose work explores ecology and the relationships between living things. Coming from the battered east of the country, he also depicts the instability of his homeland. Primo Mauridi began his professional career in 2013 as Assistant to the artistic director of the Hortensia Organization and was selected to participate in the Africanfuturism class led by filmmaker Petna Ndaliko Katondolo. He directed Mayi Yangu, a film presented at the Congo International Film Festival. In 2022 he participated in the 14th edition of the “Congo in Harlem” festival in New York and the Lubumbashi biennial.
At the same time, Primo Mauridi becomes official photographer for cultural events such as the “Hadisi Urban Festival”. In 2021, Yole! Africa, made him head of the Photos and Videos department, and won the Canon VII Academy scholarship. With his Surface project, Primo Mauridi summons the Body. The skin is used as a raw material to paint photos, in resistance to the horror of bruised bodies.
With Mawe, a project which has the eponymous volcano as its common thread, he touches on the areas of ecology, ancestral rites, summons video, digital technology and photography. Part of this project was exhibited at the 17th edition of the Rencontres d’Ishango in June 2022. The artist also participates in the International Meetings of Digital and Visual Arts of Abidjan RIANA 2022. In June 2023, he is selected by the international organization of the Francophonie to participate in the ninth edition of the Francophonie games in Kinshasa.