“Lisolo Express: The Verb in Motion”
A photographic series by Renaud Barret
In Kinshasa, words move at high speed. Written across taxi-bus windshields, they cut through the city, weaving between traffic jams, honking horns, and dust. Here, vehicles become platforms of expression, bearing biblical verses, twisted proverbs, bits of wisdom, or battle cries, depending on the driver’s mood or faith.
This series of twenty spontaneous photographs—often taken from the back of a motorcycle taxi—captures these phrases in motion. In Kinshasa’s chaotic landscape, they sometimes create fleeting moments of illumination. They become urban poetry, rolling graffiti, makeshift mantras. They say out loud what the city whispers.
Renaud Barret, Photographer and Filmmaker.
After studying Literature and then Visual Arts in France, Renaud Barret developed a passion for the urban cultures of African capitals. He discovered Kinshasa in 2003 and never truly left. Settled there, he founded La Belle Kinoise Lab, a production company at the crossroads of film and music. He directed six documentaries and produced several musical projects that have since become emblematic: Jupiter & Okwess, Staff Benda Bilili, Mbongwana Star, KOKOKO!...
For twenty years, his photographic work has documented a changing Kinshasa: a world-city with a vibrant artistic scene where everyone is forced to create the conditions for their own survival.