Kimbalambala is a slang word in Lingala, whose ending has been doubled to emphasize on continuity and signify the wear and tear or obsolescence of a vehicle that has undergone several successive repairs (an old crate). Most vehicles that arrive in Africa are no longer allowed to drive in Europe and once their life there is over, they start a new one in Africa.

Composed of recycled waste from the cars’s keletons, including even electronic wires, the robot moves forward without headlights, mirrors, bumpers, driving licence, registration, comfort or alarms... just like the society and its bad behaviour. Animated by its creator to interact with people in its path, the artwork is like a sapiens robot, a sort of human species that would try to regain control over the machine and behind the illusion of omnipotence offered by the armour lies vulnerable flesh, mistreated by the mechanisms of the rigid sheet metal that surrounds it. Kimbalambala embodies human craziness.  What place will humans give to robots? Will pollution dominate the world? Thus, Kimbalambala is also the story of a struggle of resistance between man and the machine that overcomes him.

Through this work, Precy Numbi questions us on our modes of overproduction, overconsumption and then rejection, but on another level, it is the whole world that he questions from a technological, ecological and political point of view. Creating this giant robots is also a positive way of showing that creation is always possible, even in miserable conditions. By carrying 23 kilos of metal and plastic waste on his back, the artist, through his performance, shows us a form of human resistance to the weight that the machine imposes on him today.

This artist is exhibited through the AFRIKIKK partnership between Belgium and Senegal (with KIKK Festival, Kër Thiossane and the curator Delphine Buysse) thanks to the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International - Tunisie en Mouvement - Bureau International de la Jeunesse & Africalia

Picture by © Marie Ihoi