GERMAN PREMIERE
In Blick Bassy’s Afrofuturistic tale, the Queen of Nkolmesseng in present-day Cameroon leads a resistance through the centuries to liberate the continent from colonialism and all forms of imperialism. Her army, made up of women, has a single weapon: dance.
Based on the tradition of Bikutsi, a traditional Cameroonian music and dance practiced by the Beti women to relieve pain, Blick Bassy has created a powerful, multidisciplinary show – a feminist manifesto in which women are the protagonists of social emancipation. In this musical fairy tale between fiction and historical reality, dance becomes an act of resistance.
In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Cameroon, the Institut français and with the support of the Franco-German Fund, Bikutsi 3000 premiered in June 2022 at the Musée du Quai Branly as part of the exhibition Sur la Route des Chefferies du Cameroun. The pan-African version with dancers from Cameroon can now be experienced for the first time in Europe, highlighting the choreographic peculiarities and cultural Cameroonian approaches.
Bikutsi 3000 has already toured Cameroon and is also aimed at the young African population with the aim of triggering a reflection on roots, identity and post-colonial emancipation. The project also promotes international choreographic collaboration.
ARTISTIC DIRECTION Blick Bassy | WITH the dancers & choreographers Germaine Marie Louise Katia Eyi, Beatrice Annette Ntsoli Bouillong, Marie Philomène Celeste O’Konor, Isis Jobrelle Abanda | LIGHTING AnthonyCals | ASSISTANCE / TOUR MANAGEMENT Hermine Yollo | PRODUCTION BB enterprise / Likoda Prod
Blick Bassy, one of Cameroon’s most innovative artists, draws his inspiration from his childhood memories and works them into music, dance, text, performing arts and film. After spending ten years with the group he founded, Macase, he embarked on a solo career as a musician. His album 1958 is a tribute to the Cameroonian independence fighter Ruben Um Nyobé, who was shot dead by French colonial troops that year. In 2016, he wrote his first novel, Le Moabi Cinéma, which was published by Gallimard and won the Grand Prix, which celebrates francophone authors from the continent.
