Werra Son & Menge Musica Maison Mere - Färgfabriken celebrates it's 10th anniversery

18 June 2005

Färgfabriken turns 10 and this is celebrated with dance and music, with the very best band from the world's currently hottest music city, Kinshasa in Congo. Werra Son and his 25-strong band Menge Musica Maison Mere play live at Färgfabriken.

In Congo, Werra Son draws over 200,000 people to a single gig. When they last played in Paris, 28,000 people came. Here in Stockholm, it will be an exclusive gig for a maximum of 500 people. This has been made possible by the artist Carsten Höller’s long-term interest in the explosive development of the Congolese music scene. Höller, who together with Miriam Bäcktröm represents Sweden at the Biennale in Venice this summer, made a notable exhibition at Färgfabriken in 2002. Now, together with the Swedish-Congolese Steve M Munsi, he has managed to attract Werra Son to Stockholm for this unique gig.

However, Congolese music has received remarkably little attention outside of Africa. Congo is associated for many only with war, devastation, dictatorship, child prostitution, murdered UN soldiers and other abominations. Because that is how it is presented in the Western media. But this country, which on the surface is larger than all of Western Europe, is so much more. Not least when the music, which has now become so central that even the country’s politicians have to relate to it. A sign of this is that some time ago Werra Son was named “ambassador of peace” by the country’s president, Joseph Kabila. A connection that could be of central importance as the Congo will soon go to its first real election.

This would not be a project at Färgfabriken if it did not also create meetings and contacts on a wider and long-term level. At Färgfabriken’s 5th anniversary, the now legendary Teleport Diner took place. A bar in Williamsburg, New York was moved via the internet to Färgfabriken and 25 people were flown over for a day-long party with Stockholm. Via web cameras, the cities were linked together and the event spread like wildfire around the world. When the 25-strong band Werra Son is now flown to Stockholm, it forms the basis for Teleport Kinshasa, a real-time link so that you can follow the concert and everything around it at selected locations in Kinshasa. We are connected to Samba Play in Kinshasa and via the internet everything can be followed in the rest of the world.