appear green – the same colours were adopted in 1967 by the party-state, the Popular Movement of the Revolution. There are other reasons for the adoption of this colour, some of which are environmental and others political. The INSS is next to the old ‘neutral zone’, a green and wooded area, part of which is now used as a golf course. One of the striking features of the INSS, which is also a mark of Authenticité, is a large plaque of 50m² frescoes. The mosaic characters represent the traditional occupations of Congolese: fishing, agriculture, pottery and circumstances that may require social security, such as old age and physical disability.
Figure 3: INSS frescoes. © Author, 2016
The panel of frescoes is not an after-thought. Here the work of art is integrated into the architecture: it was designed from the beginning with the participation of the artist. The large panel is placed on the boulevard and in front of a perpendicular avenue that runs up to the river. It is located on the frontage, just on the axis of the main entrance. To balance the intrusion of the horizontal panel on the left, the architect places a vertical panel pierced with openings on the right. This might be seen as reminiscent of the African tradition of mural painting of houses, made of earth or clay, which is known to many peoples of the Congo. A typical example is Niangara (Jewsiewicki, like many other places on the continent, rich with systems of geometric and figurative elements, which sometimes function as an alphabet with clear meaning (Nzuji, 1996; Jewsiewicki, 1991: 314). By using this system to convey his message, Lambrichs hinted at the fact that, for many people, figuration might be better understood than written words. Jewsiewicki explains that the original decoration of buildings in the Congo is linked to weaving, as can be seen in women’s hairstyles, scarification, designs on fabrics and pottery and
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