SIXTE KAKINDA
BIOGRAPHY
Sixte Kakinda began his artistic practice as a self-taught comic strip artist before becoming the first sub-Saharan to obtain both a master's degree (2020) and Doctorate (2023) from the Department of Global Art Practice at Tokyo University of the Arts. His work Intimate Moments/ Monologue (2019) won first prize. His doctoral thesis is entitled Drawing invisible through the body as crossing points -The Role and Possibilities of Drawing-Performance through the study of Modern and Contemporary African Arts.
As a drawing artist, Sixte is intensely focused, in general, on the line, the fundamental element of drawing, and in particular on the lines drawn in the Congo River basin since pre-colonial times. By harnessing the inherent properties of the line such as connectivity, separation, imprisonment, invisibility, identity..., Sixte seeks not only to explore new possibilities of creating art but also to foster a dialogue about the historical and cultural narratives of the Congo. His approach aims to decolonize the drawing and the act of drawing, enabling a more nuanced representation of the Congo’s identity and history. This has led to concepts like “Drawing as Crossing,” which he continues to develop in his artistic practice.
Sixte presented his work Intimate Moments/Monologue at his first exhibition at Gallery G (Hiroshima, Japan). He took part in several group shows such as Bakuba Art: Geometrie of Life (MARKK Hamburg, 2025) curated by Stéphane Kabila and Oussounou Abdel-Aziz Sandja, Take it Home, for (__) Shall Not Repeat the Error [Manhattan Project] curated by Souya Handa (Apexart NYC, 2025), Towards an Antidote to Toxicity (8th biennale of Lubumbashi, 2024), Chinafrika. Under Construction (Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, 2017), Maono (M HKA, , 2015), amongst others. Sixte taken part in several art residencies in Basel (Switzerland), Kampala (Uganda) and Johannesburg (South Africa), and collaborated with notable artists including Hiraku Suzuki (Drawing Tube, 2025 & 2022), Lindiwe Matshikiza (One Take Grace, 2021), Sinzo Aanza (Men and Beasts, Words Without Borders, 2017). Sixte works between Goma (DR Congo) and Kampala (Uganda).
STATEMENT
Statement 2025
Drawing As Crossing.
A drawing begins with a line. The line is not merely a trace or a representation—it is the essence of drawing itself. A single line can be a world: it contains its own presence, its own weight, its own story. To draw is to allow the line to manifest, to speak as itself.
The line connects and divides. It moves from point to point, or circles back to where it began. It lives, grows, disappears. It may be visible or invisible, whispered or silent. It is a path, a thread, a passage through which ideas travel, intersect, and transform. A line carries memory; it carries voice. It is a living space where encounters unfold.
Drawing, then, is not only representation but crossing. It is the meeting of surfaces, ideas, and disciplines. It is a place of negotiation, where hybridities emerge, where stories collide or converge, where silence and voice coexist. This vision shapes my concept of “Drawing as Crossing”—an understanding of drawing as a site where the movement of histories, cultures, and identities takes form.
My practice explores the many properties of the line in order to reimagine the act of drawing. By weaving performance, video, and drawing itself, I seek to generate new lines that both emerge from and return to lived experience. The Congo Basin, with its dense entanglements of memory, river, and history, serves as the ground for these crossings—where new forms and narratives continue to flow, where and from where new lines continue to be drawn.
Statement 2023
Drawing As Crossing.
Drawing is all about the meeting of several elements. Drawing is about cross-fertilization.
Drawing is about encounters, crossovers, and hybrids. Drawing is about generating lines. Drawing is all about drawing lines.
A line connects one, two or more points. It separates or joins surfaces. It tells a story. It gives life to a story. It lives, grows, and dies. It is visible or invisible. It can be felt or not. A line carries a voice. It is also a path, a tube, a thread of ideas running from point A to point B or from point A to point B itself. A line is a space where people meet, where they cross, where they move. It is a living space.
Statement 2020
Drawing is making lines. A line connects one, two or many dots. A line can divide a space in new spaces, it also has the power of reunite again these spaces. Lines have a story we can read. They have a life and they die. Lines give life to a story. Lines can be visible or not. You can feel lines. Lines are paths, are thread to conduct an idea from a point A to a point B, or from a point A to the same point. Lines produce rhythm and sounds. Drawings are the extension of the brain. Drawings can be extended.
I started to think on all these potentialities and work on the possibilities of connecting the drawing with other disciplines such as photography, performance, music or adding some technics or materials such as cutting, de-constructing, printing, smart-phone applications or daily life movements and gestures. By mixing or putting in harmony (or not) these technics, in order to have different approaches for talking about social issues.
EDUCATION
April 2020 - March 2023
Doctor in Fine Arts/
Global Art Practice
Tokyo University of the Arts,
Tokyo, Japan.
Dissertation Title:
“Drawing invisible through the body as crossing points -The Role and Possibilities of Drawing-Performance through the study of Modern and Contemporary African Arts”.
Thesis supervisor:
Professor Yusaku Imamura
April 2018 - March 2020
Master’s in fine arts/
Global Art Practice,
Tokyo University of the Arts,
Tokyo, Japan.
2013
Diploma in Agroeconomics Engineering,
University of Lubumbashi,
Lubumbashi, DR Congo.
GRANT
May - July 2025
Mobility grant, ProHelvetia Switzerland
2017 - 2023
MEXT Scholarship (Japanese government)
March 2017
Mobility grant, ProHelvetia Johannesburg
ART RESIDENCY
2025
Drawing as Crossing: Conversation
ProHelvetia/ Atelier Mondial
Basel, Switzerland
2024
KLA ART '24
32º East
Kampala, Uganda
2017
My Island Called Ekhaya
ProHelvetia Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa
2015
Collaboration work with Lindiwe Matshikize
ProHelvetia Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa
COLLECTION
2023
Intimate Moments/Monologue
Miyamoto Yasuteru
Tokyo, Japan
2019
Intimate Moments/ Monologue
The University Art Museum/
Tokyo University of the Arts
Tokyo, Japan