Francophone Games 2023 Opening Ceremony – Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Design, create and produce the opening ceremony of the Jeux de la Francophonie in Kinshasa, the first international ceremony in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s history.

The show retraced the odyssey of two Games participants lost in the multiple dimensions of the DRC and of the Francophonie. Accompanied by the spirit of the Leopard, they embarked on an initiatory journey along the Congo River, from the lush forests of the basin to Kinshasa, the world’s first Francophone city with a singular urban reality.
DRC animal creatures in props and giant puppets joined an unusual procession of costumes, colors and accessories on our Kuba-inspired printed canvas.
We rebuilt Kinshasa’s iconic traffic robot, but in a female version to mark Africa’s openness to gender equality. The woman engineer behind the robots recreated it for us.
We created an eco-responsible tableau with the « Sapekologues », highlighting recycling with costumes made entirely from elements found in rubbish dumps.
Kinshasa’s traffic is hellish with its countless yellow cabs, so we incorporated them into the show by driving them around the pitch before the Sapeurs got out to parade.