L’Opéra du Villageois - Berlin-Premiere

In the organizer's words:

"I AM NOT AN OBJECT" Echoing the ongoing debate about the return of cultural assets, Zora Snake resurrects the sacred heart of the mask in all its strength and power and as a vehicle of resistance.

In his performative dance parcours, he guides us through the museum and opens up a dimension in the ritual that opens up a new perspective on shared colonial history and its representations. L'Opéra du villageois (The Villager's Opera) is a tribute to the inhabitants of the villages and former kingdoms in the Cameroonian grasslands.

The dancer and choreographer Zora Snake tells us about the hidden journey of the masks as private treasures, capitalist goods, looted art, and also about the lashes that the bodies of his ancestors had to endure. "Some of our independence fighters fought back against the violence of the colonial rulers. Today, the beatings reveal the atrocities of a time when people used masks to heal, end wars and forge new bonds," says the performer. "Once in the museum, the masks are damaged and have lost their function in their society of origin due to alienation from their original places."

With the flag of the European Union, a funeral, with a ritual around gold and salt, the artist manifests the history of the looting of cultural belongings and the still living artistic diversity of this heritage. In the aesthetics of the bare body, European performance, Cameroonian dance and the materiality of his props, he makes the debate about origin and ownership, division and reconciliation tangible. "The sacred belly of the mask has become an 'art object' in the museum, but the mask with its history represents a society burdened with a heritage. We are the voice and continuity of this great reincarnation with its inexhaustible cultural riches, long silenced in the colonial apparatus." Zora Snake

Zora Snake is a dancer, choreographer and performance artist, founder of the Zora Snake company and the international Modaperf festival in Cameroon. He is in demand internationally and combines artistic creation in public space, performance and political-poetic ritual, art and society. The development of civil society through performances in Cameroon's urban districts is particularly important to him. He has won numerous prizes and collaborates with renowned artists, including Serge Aimé Coulibaly and Fabrice Murgia. He has been a guest at the Cité internationale des arts, the Palais de Tokyo and the Centre Beaubourg in Paris, at the africologne festival and the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum - Kulturen der Welt in Cologne, at the Zürcher Theaterspektakel / Museum Rietberg. His stage production Shadow Survivors premiered in Nancy in 2023.www.zorasnake.com

PARTICIPANTS

Concept & performance: Zora Snake

Live music: Maddly Mendy Sylva

Audio sound: Débats politiques

Texts: Aimé Césaire

Voice: Carolyne Cannella

Instrumental music: Bebe Wandja, Bamlileke

Production: Compagnie Zora Snake

Support: Faso Danse Théâtre, Paris

- free of charge

- Follow-up discussion on 9.11.2024, 19:00 & 10.11.2024, 14:00

- Starting point: 2nd floor, room 216, Ethnological Museum, 2nd floor

- Belongs to: Transcontinental