Les Aventures de President Bongo

2018 - 2028

Tintin, the bright-eyed reporter, kind of defined what it meant to be an adventurer in the twentieth century. He ventured into space, into the deepest darkness of Africa, dwelled among communists and travelled to the Far East. But he was also a product of the outmoded world view of the Belgian colonialists and actually served the cause of Catholic fascists when Hergé's pen first gave life to him in the interwar years. But Tintin managed to put his spotty past behind him and Hergé’s books, which eventually amounted to 24, are considered among the most significant comics albums of the 20th century. Ernest Hemingway once wrote that true nobility is being superior to your former self. Tintin’s spirit of adventure became a source of inspiration to President Bongo when he suddenly saw the books in a new light one fateful evening in a small mountain cabin in Lón. Sure, they formed a coherent narrative world with certain key characters and basic themes, but otherwise they were as inventive as Hergé’s boundless imagination. The president decided to venture out on his own and release 24 albums over a period of ten years under the title of Les Aventures de President Bongo, bringing together a vast array of artists under his direction. But "albums” in the plural don’t really cover this project as a whole, which is closer to being a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, an all-embracing body of work encompassing music, photography, design, writing and short films. Multiple elements thrive under its umbrella in different mediums – amputated nature, poetic light art, obsolete structures, deep sea techno, funeral jazz and buzzing electric flies, to name but a few. Just like Tintin, just like Hergé, Bongo is solely driven by an unquenchable thirst for adventure. The whole world is at stake and there is always room to do better.