Introspection II

Rahim Lascony, whose full name is Raiche Analdy Rahim Dabitchi Lascony, grew up in Bacongo, Brazzaville's neighbourhood of the Sapeurs, two plots away from Papa Wemba's house. The painter Van Andréa opened the doors of painting to him; sapologie never left him. He trained at the Poto-Poto Painting School, then at the contemporary art centre Les Ateliers Sahm, where he completed several creation residencies. From his early years he kept the mark of "Afro-pagne": pagne fabric, sand and recycled materials sewn, knitted and collaged directly onto the canvas. Between acrylic, sewing, knitting and collage, he builds two major series — "Ba Mama Moziki", an ode to women's societies and Congolese femininity, and "Les Vieux du Quartier", a mirror of the popular elegances of his childhood. A painter of canvases and walls (murals in Pointe-Noire and Kinshasa), performer and installation artist, he lives and works between Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.