The hip-hop dance theater commemorates the colonial soldiers who had to fight under French command in the First and Second World Wars.
With hip-hop songs and poetic lyrics, breakdancing and captivating choreography in front of historical photos and film clips, this contemporary performance commemorates the millions of soldiers from the French colonies who fought on the front line for France in 1914-18 and who helped to liberate Europe from fascism during the Second World War. Today largely forgotten, the Compagnie Mémoires Vives from the Strasbourg banlieus brings an important but suppressed chapter of history to the stage in a contemporary form. In addition to breakdancing and graffiti, there are videos with archive footage and statements from contemporary witnesses on a large screen as well as live singing. The Compagnie Mémoires Vives first developed the piece in 2007 with young people from the banlieues of Strasbourg, whose fathers and grandfathers had fought as colonial soldiers in Alsace and remained there after the end of the war.
To date, performances of the hip-hop dance theater have accompanied the exhibition in Berlin (2009), Cologne (2010) Freiburg and Lucerne (2011) as well as in Frankfurt (2013). Almost all performances were sold out and the audience was moved and enthusiastic. In Cologne, for example, more than 300 schoolchildren attended the performances and engaged in lively discussions with the performers afterwards.
For the presentation in May 2025, the play was restaged with actors from North and West Africa as well as France. The performances are a spectacular highlight at the end of the long-term project “The Third World in the Second World War” and at the same time a prologue to the africologneFESTIVAL.
WITH Compagnie Mémoires Vives (Strasbourg) DIRECTOR Yan Gilg IN COOPERATION WITH africologneFESTIVAL; Afrika Film Festival Köln / FilmInitiativ Köln e.V.; Friedensbildungswerk Köln; jfc – Medienzentrum (Cologne); Eine Welt Netz NRW; Bürgerzentrum Nippes – Altenberger Hof.
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CONTEXT THE THIRD WORLD IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
A nos morts is part of the program accompanying the exhibition The Third World in the Second World War. At the end of the overall project, the original exhibition will be shown once again in an updated and expanded version from March 8 to June 1, 2025 – around the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe (on May 8, 2025). June 2025 at the Cologne NS Documentation Center. It has been supplemented with (local) historical facts that were added in other exhibition cities and countries. Artistic reflections from Africa, Asia and Oceania on the consequences of the Second World War will also be presented in the basement vault of the NS-DOK.
The extensive accompanying program with international guests from Egypt, Algeria, France, Italy, Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil, Korea, Malaysia, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA was created in cooperation with local and national initiatives and offers more than 30 events. These include lectures, readings, theater performances, a film series, live music and the hip-hop dance performance by Mémoires Vives.
CONCEPT AND REALIZATION Christa Aretz & Karl Rössel (Recherche International e.V., Cologne)