Before writing this story, I had some idea of the Art Nouveau movement, but would be pushed to pinpoint where exactly it deviated from what we know about Art Deco interior design. In terms of eras ...

Travelling to the DRC, I located actual art nouveau buildings from the early colonial period. But it was the state sites of the early Mobutu Sese Seko regime (1965 to 1975) that captured my attention.