1. Embodying the city : FULU ACT
In the streets of Kinshasa, the third most populous city on the African continent, artists are trying to raise awareness of the environmental issues facing their fellow citizens. In a changing urban landscape, they question the profusion of consumer objects and create ornaments by recycling them. Grouped together in collectives, they perform in the streets of the Congolese capital, denouncing societal problems such as pollution, deforestation and over-consumption. Heirs to an urban culture and an African symbolic tradition, these artists enter into dialogue with the inhabitants of their city with a view to changing behaviour.
With its Embodying the City project, the Out of Focus collective aims to convey the ideas of these artists through photographs, coupled with a series of performances in the streets of Brussels. By transposing their messages to the European continent, Out of Focus highlights the interdependence of our economic systems and current ecological issues. A paradox that can be summed up by this trivial question: how can a country with no industry become a victim of over-consumption?
Since the Berlin Conference in 1884, the Congo has been at the forefront of globalisation. The country's emergence as the world's leading exporter of coltan (a key mineral in the construction of smartphones) is the latest example. In the streets of Kinshasa, where hundreds of thousands of phones are dumped every year, we can see the consequences of our relationship with objects and the world.
By transposing these archetypes from Kinshasa to the streets of Brussels, Embodying the City brings together a subject and a context that may seem unrelated, but are nonetheless intrinsically linked. This confrontation will eventually lead to a questioning of our modernity.
Project sponsor : Out of Focus
2. Black Speaks Back: Palimpsest
A palimpsest is a reused piece of handwritten parchment. The top layer has been scraped off so that the parchment can be rewritten, since it no longer attaches any value to the original text. "It preserves the distinction of the individual texts, while exposing the contamination of one by the other. Françoise Verges.
What better way to describe the importance of the intergenerational transfer of knowledge within the African diaspora than through the many images, feelings, songs, sagas, etc. These are building blocks, methods and a source of knowledge for building a future and making ourselves heard together. Let's exchange them and share them with each other! "Palimpsest" collects stories from community elders and presents them in a form that is accessible (video) to the younger generation, with the aim of promoting intergenerational exchanges.
Project sponsor : Black Speaks Back
3. Amaj Productions : Anane
Anane' is a two-part project, with a documentary and a theatre/dance performance as the two parts. The first part of 'Anane' is a documentary in which Adams Mensah follows Joffrey Anana on his journey to his mother in Ghana to ask her questions. In 2016, Adams made a similar journey and documentary about his ailing mother, 'Me A Belgian, My Mother A Ghanaian'. In the second part of the project, Joffrey will integrate his discoveries/experiences from his visit into a theatre/dance solo.
Through a personal story, Adams and Joffrey want to give the public a better insight into what migration and growing up in a host family from another culture can do to a person. A story that is not just for local use but is recognisable in different contexts.
Project sponsor : Amaj Productions
4. Publieke Acties vzw : Being Imposed Upon
The Being Imposed Upon project has an exceptional literary approach. Publieke Acties brings you reflections on being a woman and being black from the people who really have the right to express themselves: black women. These are brought together in a collection of personal accounts, journalistic approaches, literary non-fiction and poetry on the subject. All in our two national languages under the direction of two editors with a remarkable track record: Gia Abrassart (Café Congo) and Heleen Debeuckelaere (BRUZZ, BLACK, De Standaard).
Being imposed refers to the external pressure that can be exerted on a person or a body. But it can also refer to the strict boundaries we draw between forms of knowledge production and forms of communication. In this project, these boundaries will be crossed and new links created between the different genres. Personal accounts will be linked to academic research, as will journalistic approaches. Literary fiction will contain elements of reportage, and poetry and journalism will go hand in hand. In terms of content, this work refers to the concept of intersectionality, but in its form it will also propagate this concept.
Project sponsor : Publieke Acties vzw
5. Transe en Danse: Who We Are
A multilingual dance-theatre, puppet show and song about migration and undocumented migrants, set in an all-paper décor featuring pop-ups, shadow theatre and object theatre. The characters, inspired by real people, will be embodied by puppets of various sizes, metaphors for impersonal reception policies or for the importance that 'the other' takes on when you open the door and get to know them. Made mainly of paper, they will express themselves as much through gesture as through words and song. It's a show that showcases the human nuggets of civic engagement, the dignity of migrants, their incredible stories and the difficulties they face in their home countries, on the road and in Belgium.
Project sponsor : Transe en Danse
6. WARP: Flowering Ethiopia
FR: Flowering Ethiopia is an art project that forms part of the Coup de Ville 020 exhibition in Sint-Niklaas. The artist Ermias Kifleyesus is creating new works (drawings, paintings, collages, videos) inspired by the cultivation of flowers in Ethiopia.
Based on a field study, the artist examines this successful and non-traditional export activity from a social, ecological and economic point of view. The emphasis is on participatory creations, in collaboration with visitors and the public.
Project sponsor : WARP
