“There is what Congolese novelist In Koli Jean Bofane refers to in the film as an ever-evolving 'algorithm of Congo Inc': an algorithm perfected somewhere between Washington, London, Brussels and Kigali, where Congo Inc. has become the global supplier delivering strategic minerals to take war into space. The thesis of Congo Inc. is that every major war largely consumed and was able to be fought thanks to minerals that were provided by the Congo. In the First World War it was rubber; during the Second World War the high-grade uranium; in Vietnam it was the copper of the endless bullets that were shipped there; and now the strategic materials to take war into space.” (Johan Grimonprez)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
United Nations, 1961: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez explores a moment when jazz, colonialism, and espionage collided.
What's On
Fiume o morte! Fiume o morte!
Igor Bezinović
Friday, 03. 10. 2025 / 15:30 / Main Hall
On 12 September 1919, a troop of some three hundred soldiers under the leadership of the flamboyant war-loving Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio swooped into the Northern-Adriatic port town of Fiume, now Rijeka, wanting to annex the city to Italy. Over the course of the next 16 months, during what is regarded as one of the most bizarre militant sieges of all time his official photography team captured over 10,000 images. A century later, Igor Bezinović orchestrates a direct-action history lesson focused on the siege and its modern-day implications.
Wisdom of Happiness Wisdom of Happiness
Barbara Miller, Philip Delaquis
Friday, 03. 10. 2025 / 17:00 / Small Hall
With disarming wit, the Dalai Lama reflects on balancing millennia-old Tibetan Buddhist traditions with the contemporary values of our globalised society that now struggles to overcome violence and war while standing on the brink of environmental collapse.