The examination of dominance and violence is a characteristic of many post-colonial theater texts. The theater productions invited to africologne often deal with colonial, social and political-religious violence. The productions will be translated and subtitled for the festival.
ESSAYS AND FESTIVAL REPORTING – africologne on PLATEFORME.DE
Four essays by African and Afro-diasporic artists on the subject of resistant artistic practice and translation processes in a post-colonial context will be published on plateforme.de shortly before the start of the festival. The authors are the actress and director Odile Sankarathe poet and performer Kagayi Ngobi, the director Eva Doumbia and the choreographer Raphael Moussa Hillebrand. To get to the essays, please click on the names.
In addition, plateforme.de will publish daily reviews, photos, background reports and interviews online throughout the festival. Texts: Marie Yan, dramaturge, translator and author.
africologne has also commissioned two plays focusing on violence and resistance : one to the Berlin author Josephine Papke and one to the Burkinabe author Justin Stanislas Drabo, who was already a guest at africologne in 2017 with L’Ingérence (The Interference). The resulting texts will be discussed and presented with the authors as part of africologne…
THE DESIRE TO BE DESIRED | JOSEPHINE PAPKE
Talk/reading
Maya struggles with the duality of her desires: she wants to be respected, appreciated and loved. But sometimes she also wants to be desired. For the person she is. But that feels impossible. Because her Black female body quickly becomes a projection surface for hypersexualized patriarchal fantasies. What can she do if she doesn’t want to give in to this and yet is so influenced by it?
WITH Josephine Papke | READING N.N. | TALK MODERATION Sarah Youssef
STADTGARTEN / JAKI | June 4, 4 p.m. | LANGUAGE German | DURATION 1:15 h | SRP + AK 8 / 5 € (reduced)
VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE IN THE SAHEL
Talk/reading
L’Ingérence tells the true story of civil engineer and development aid worker Jörg Lange in Burkina Faso, who was ‘removed’ from the country at a moment’s notice after interfering in the affairs of power of former President Blaise Compaoré in 2005. We talk to 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 | PR + AK 8 / 5 € (reduced) | ADMISSION FREE with performance ticket TERRE CEINTE (start: 7 p.m.)
DISCUSSION 1: VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE
Terrorist and state violence shape societies in their daily struggle for survival and dignity. For many of the artists invited to africologne, theater is a resistant and political practice. Each of them develops different strategies for representing and processing violence on stage.
WITH Aristide Tarnagda, Odile Sankara, Kagayi Ngobi, Annette Bühler-Dietrich, Valentine Cohen MODERATION Frank Weigand
ALTE FEUERWACHE / BÜHNE | June 5, 9 pm, following the performance Terre Ceinte | LANGUAGES German and French with translation | DURATION 1 h | ADMISSION FREE
DISCUSSION 2: STAGE, POWER, CONTEXT
Artists at africologne are well-traveled, work in international constellations and are aware of the changes a production undergoes from one place to another. Most of the invited productions were created with the support of institutions from the Global North and South. The panel examines the power relations in international collaborations.
WITH Germaine Acogny, Mikaël Serre, Uli Menke, Christiana Tabaro MODERATION Annette Bühler-Dietrich, Frank Weigand
TANZFAKTUR / HALLE | June 8, 4:45 pm, following the performance DIALAW-Project | LANGUAGES German and French with translation | DURATION 1 h | ADMISSION FREE
The project is part of a larger focus in collaboration with the online archive and magazine for theater translation PLATEFORME. Frank Weigand, translator, cultural journalist and initiator of PLATEFORME, and Annette Bühler-Dietrich, translator, literary and theater scholar, are curating the thematic focus – in collaboration with Kerstin Ortmeier.
SUPPORTED BY the German Translators’ Fund as part of the Neustart Kultur program of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Kunststiftung NRW.