Guy Woueté
Le Fou Postcolonial Insane

The video installation Le Fou Postcolonial Insane by Guy Woueté is a series of five videos that examine the concept of insanity in the post-colonial Democratic Republic of Congo. The first three videos in the series were shot in a market place in Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the Congo, where several psychoanalysts explore mental health in the context of the Congolese public sphere. Throughout the video series, Woueté links this public health examination to memories of colonial history. In the last two videos in the series, the artist juxtaposes two subjective perspectives on the colonial regime in Belgian Congo. Tracing both the contemporary context and historical narratives, the project aims to destigmatize the topic and conditions of insanity. Woueté states the video series demonstrates how the ways in which history is narrated are complex and often problematic, emphasizing that it is important to “take care” of how history is chronicled and retold.