Faustin Linyekula grew up and studied literature and theatre in Kisangani. He lived for a time in Nairobi and in 1997 co-founded the first contemporary dance company in Kenya with Opiyo Okach and Afrah Tenambergen.
He returned to Kisangani in June 2001 and set up Studios Kabako, a dance and visual theatre organisation designed as a place for interaction, research and creation. With his company, Faustin Linyekula has written some fifteen plays that have been performed on major stages and at major festivals in Europe, Africa and North and South America.
Faustin Linyekula has also designed performances for museums, for instance in New York at MOMA in 2012 and the Metropolitan Musem en 2017, and in Marseille at the Mucem in 2016. His collaborations include a production for the Comédie Française (Bérénice, 2009), a show for the Ballet de Lorraine (La Création du monde 1923-2012) and a solo for a dancer from the CNB - Ballet National du Portugal (2016). He has also danced (a rare experience in his career) for Raimund Hoghe, who designed the duo Sans-Titre (2009) for him. Faustin Linyekula regularly teaches in Africa, in the United States and in Europe. In 2007 he was awarded the Grand Prix by the Prince Claus Foundation for culture and development. In 2016, Faustin Linyekula was associated artist for the City of Lisbon and was awarded the city’s medal of cultural merit.
Since 2006, Faustin Linyekula has worked in the town of Kisangani where Studios Kabako support, train, produce and distribute young Congolese performing artists, videomakers and musicians, while working on the creation of a community cultural centre in Lubunga, one of the city’s six districts. In 2014, Faustin and Studios Kabako were awarded first prize by the CurryStone Foundation in the United States for the work carried out in Kisangani. In 2019, Faustin was associated artist at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, and since 2018 he has been associated artist since September 2018 for three seasons at Le Manège in Reims.
