Monika Emmanuelle Kazi's 'terrain meuble' Transforms Centre culturel suisse into a Diasporic Archive
Monika Emmanuelle Kazi is showcasing her exhibition, 'terrain meuble,' at the Centre culturel suisse in Paris, which explores how inhabited spaces linger in our minds. With influences from her life in Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo, and Paris, she creates an architectural experience that emphasizes movement, texture, and memory. One standout element of the exhibition is a set of movable wooden panels that challenge the traditional, fixed nature of the gallery, allowing walls to tell stories about family, childhood, and broader issues like colonialism and the flow of resources. Kazi highlights how materials influence our surroundings, particularly using cement linked to colonial history to examine architecture and climate. The exhibition will be open until 1 November 2026.
Key facts
- Monika Emmanuelle Kazi's exhibition 'terrain meuble' is on view at the Centre culturel suisse in Paris until 1 November 2026.
- The exhibition transforms the Centre culturel suisse into an architecture of movement, material, and remembrance.
- Kazi draws on memories shaped between Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo and Paris.
- A central structure of mobile wooden panels unsettles the gallery's stability, making walls porous.
- The installation addresses colonialism, economic exchange, and the circulation of natural resources.
- Cement, introduced across parts of Africa during the colonial period, is a starting point for considering architecture, climate, and inherited construction systems.
- Traces of condensation and moisture are reimagined as drawings and crystallisations of memory.
- Tropical woods exported to Europe return through intricate marquetry, alongside pyrography, sapele wood, and wallpaper fragments.
Entities
Artists
- Monika Emmanuelle Kazi
Institutions
- Centre culturel suisse
Locations
- Paris
- France
- Pointe-Noire
- Republic of the Congo