VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE - THEATRE IN CONTEXT OF POSTCOLONIALISM

Some of the theater productions invited to the africologneFESTIVAL deal with colonial, social and political-religious violence, but also with resistance practices. The discourse program accompanying this focus will take place for the first time in cooperation with PLATEFORME, the online archive and magazine for theater translation.

 

Essays and Festival report – africologne auf plateforme.de
 
For the first time, the africologne discourse program will take place in cooperation with PLATEFORME.DE Shortly before the start of the festival, four essays by African and Afrodiasporic artists on the subject of resistant artistic practice and translation processes in the postcolonial context will be published on the website plateforme.de. The authors are actress Odile Sankara, poet and performer Peter Kagayi Ngobi, director Eva Doumbia and choreographer Raphael Moussa Hillebrand.

 

In addition, PLATEFORME will report daily throughout the festival and publish reviews, photos, background reports and interviews online. The result is an informative and critical festival diary. Texts: Marie Yan, Author, dramaturge, translator. 

We also commissioned two plays focusing on violence and resistance. The texts are to be discussed and/or staged by local artists and presented as part of africologne. The texts are presented in German or a German translation. The involvement of the authors opens up the dialogue on the topic of violence and resistance in the postcolonial context on an artistic level and thus complements the broadly sought-after discursive debate.

 

 

VOM BEGEHREN BEGEHRT ZU WERDEN JOSEPHINE PAPKE

Conversation and reading
 
Maya struggles with the duality of her desires: she wants to be respected, valued, and loved. But sometimes also desired. For the person she is. Yet this feels impossible. Because in this racist society, the Black female body becomes a projection screen for hypersexualized patriarchal fantasies. What is to be done when she refuses to submit to this and yet is so affected by it? Does she only resist when she embodies the opposite of all the ideals? And when is the so-called self-empowerment only a pretext to win the competitive race for attention and recognition?

 

WITH Josephine Papke | READING N.N. | TALK MODERATION Sarah Youssef 

 

STADTGARTEN / JAKI | June 4, 4 p.m. | DURATION 1:15 h | VVK + AK 8 / 5 € (reduced)

 

 

VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE IN THE SAHEL

Talk / Reading 

 

L'Ingérence tells the true story of civil engineer and development worker Jörg Lange in Burkina Faso, who was 'removed' from the country overnight after interfering in the affairs of state of former president Blaise Compaoré in 2005. We talk with him and author Justin Stanislas Drabo about the situation in the Sahel and their personal experiences. Bernhard Bauer reads from the monologue.

 

WITH Justin Stanislas Drabo, Jörg Lange and Bernhard Bauer MODERATION Olaf Bernau

 

ALTE FEUERWACHE/ GROSSES FORUM June 5, 5:30 p.m. | LANGUAGES German and French with translation | DURATION 1:15 h | VVK + AK 8 / 5 € (reduced) | ADMISSION FREE with performance ticket TERRE CEINTE (start: 7 p.m.)

 

 

DISCUSSION 1: VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE

Terrorist and state violence characterize societies in the daily struggle for survival and dignity. For many artists invited to africologne, theater is a resistant and political practice. Each of them develops different strategies for depicting and processing violence on stage. The panel discussion should not only be about individual artistic decisions, but also about different contexts. The invitation of the productions to Cologne makes translation and surtitles necessary and changes the way we look at them. Which decisions go into the translation, how can violence be translated - and to what extent is translation itself a violent act?

 

PARTICIPANTS: INSIDE Aristide Tarnagda, Odile Sankara, Kagayi Ngobi, Annette Bühler-Dietrich (For my negativity), Valentine Cohen MODERATION: Frank Weigand

5.June, 9:00pm, following the staging of TERRE CEINTE

 

 

DISCUSSION 2: STAGE, POWER AND CONTEXT

Artists at africologne have traveled widely, collaborate internationally and know how a production changes from one place to another. Many of the invited pieces were created with the support of institutions from the Global North and South. The panel asks about the balance of power in international collaborations and about the transformation of productions on the way from one language and cultural area to another. How is the change reflected in the language of the staging, how do other cultural and political conditions change reception? To what extent are non-verbal art forms such as dance also subject to different reception conditions? Finally, what is the responsibility of translation and surtitling as a means of controlling reception?

 

PARTICIPANTS: INSIDE Germaine Acogny, Mikaël Serre, Uli Menke (DIALAW-Project), Christiana Tabaro (The Ghosts are returning) MODERATION Annette Bühler-Dietrich, Frank Weigand.

June 8, 4:45 p.m., following the presentation of DIALAW Project