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Central Africa is being ravaged since the last decade by a string of conflicts that span from Caprivi Strip in Northern Namibia to Uganda and the Great Lakes Region. These conflicts also bridge with volatile Westafrica - through deals and smuggling, tricky and everchanging alliances, blunt exploitation of natural resources and massive displacement of populations. This first continental war is both original in its dimensions and in its nature. It is likely, so far, that its most relevant consequence - besides the already unbearable toll in human suffering and casualties - will be the informal and “de facto” reshaping of the political map of Africa.

All along the XXth century, the map of the African continent kept the same borders defined by European powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884. But it’s clear today that Pandora’s box is being opened for the first time, unofficially and amidst absolute chaos, in the heart of the former Belgian Congo and Westafrica.

Kurosafrica mirrors the excess that it’s the core definition of this war. Everything on this changing territories is superlative: death, hate, greed, insanity, imagination, dedication. If we are to picture all this extremes together - in a single, huge battlefield - we can only think in Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece “Ran” (“Chaos”). What we are aiming at it’s a comprehensive script for this “World War”. A script for “Kurosafrica”- told from inside the screen.

Pedro Rosa Mendes and Wolf Böwig

panels

25 pieces 30 x 80 cm
20 meters

series 1

2 pieces 90 x 60 cm

series 2

2 pieces 60 x 90 cm
18 pieces 30 x 30 cm

series 3

3 pieces 60 x 90 cm

series 4

9 pieces 30 x 30 cm

series 5

4 pieces 60 x 90 cm

series 6

3 pieces 90 x 60 cm

series 7

15 pieces 30 x 30 cm

series 8

3 pieces 60 x 90 cm

series 9

2 pieces 90 x 60 cm

series 10

3 pieces 150 x 60 cm

series 11

12 pieces 30 x 30 cm

series 12

3 pieces 90 x 60 cm

series 13

2 pieces 90 x 60 cm

series 14

3 pieces 90 x 60 cm