Augure, Baloji’s debut feature film, which premiered in 2023 at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, where it won the New Voice Award, unfolds as an ensemble narrative that navigates between realism and fantasy. Set in a phantasmagorical Africa, four marginalised characters must grapple with questions relating to beliefs, social roles and family legacies. A work that blends cinema, music, ritual and the visual arts.

After fifteen years in exile in Europe, Koffi returns to the Congo, where his family still regards him as a bearer of ill fortune. Around him are Tshala, his free-spirited, defiant sister; Mujila, their mother, held captive by grief and the judgement of others; and Paco, a young boy living on the streets who leads a local gang. Each is trying to escape the curse they have been made to bear and reclaim control of their own destiny.

Drawing on his experience as a musician, fashion designer and visual artist, Baloji creates a work of extraordinary visual richness. Costumes, sets, colours, gestures and sounds form a language of their own, giving shape to the characters’ inner lives and to the unseen tensions between inheritance, belief, modernity, family and emancipation. The film unfolds as a synaesthetic experience, with each character inhabiting a distinct world of colour, texture and sound. Baloji also created four separate albums, each conceived from the perspective of one of the characters. Together, they extend the film into a musical work to be presented at the Palais de Tokyo on Thursday 3 December.

• A dedicated ticket is required for admission to this event
• Capacity for this event is limited
• Ticket for this event also grants same-day admission to the exhibitions
• The event takes place in room 37, level -1 of the building