Kinshasa & Lusaka >> Lubumbashi

Following on from their 2017 and 2018 residencies, Michael Disanka of Collectif d’Art-d’Art with Christiana Tabaro Disanka and Julia Taonga Kaseka from Modzi Arts will be on residency at WAZA in Lubumbashi from late December 2019 to develop and present their work Overstaying. 

The group will be focusing on how to decolonise mindsets by challenging the negative ideas inherited from colonialism and redefining notions of freedom, border and belonging within the framework of Pan-Africanism. “It is through a profound questioning of these concepts that we may find our own contemporary epistemic,” Michael explains.

The performance will be in both French and English, based off the performers’ own experiences. It will include a series of conversations interspersed with performative moments.

Michael explains the piece: “We will work on the notion of psycho-physical overcoming. That is to say, we will work on a language that goes beyond the languages inherited from colonization, it is the first frontier to cross. We will then test our bodies as in a ritual of atonement of the Ba Ngunza of Congo, to elucidate from our bodies and minds some ideas that distill the humanity of being African and thus help Christiana to heal herself from the physical and mental abuse she suffered during her arrest. The performance will be subversive, because it aims at the liberation of psycho-physical borders that are in excess of their presence in the bodies and minds of many of our contemporaries.”

This residency and performance is supported by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Waza Art Centre and the Institut Français de Kinshasa.