Je suis l'acteur de la poésie de ma mère
MICHAEL DISANKA / KVS / KFDA
Co-Presentation with Kunstenfestivaldesarts
Post-performance Talk
On Friday, 15 May, Adeline Rosenstein will moderate a post-performance talk with Michael Disanka (in French).
Creative Workshops for Children
Sunday 17/5 - 15h00
Every Sunday afternoon during Kunstenfestivaldesarts, children ages 4 to 12 years old can take part in a creative workshop organized by visual artist and art educator Vera Horvath together with a team of educators. Each workshop is organised around a specific performance and takes place at the same location and time, allowing families to experience the festival together while engaging with the same theme.
Experimentation and play are at the heart of the workshop. Children are welcomed into an open play space where they can explore different art forms independently. They can paint, build with clay, work with natural materials, and invent their own forms of expression — all as a way of freely exploring and experimenting. The play space also includes a quiet corner with books and blocks for children who need a moment of rest. We don’t work toward a final result; instead, we invite them to enjoy the process of creating.
Kids should wear clothes that can get dirty.
A snack of fruit and biscuits will be provided. Please let us know if your child has any allergies.
Info and reservation
Please register through this link. More info via tania.ndwaniye@kfda.be or emilie.kabongo@kfda.be. Tickets for the shows must be booked separately.
A final, intimate dialogue between a mother and her son, interwoven with a dive into the family history and the history of Congo.
In 2018, Michael Disanka presented his Sept Mouvements Congo at KVS, a moving chronicle of the recent history of his country in text, image and music. In 2022 he collaborated with Christiana Tabaro to create Géométrie de vies. Je suis l’acteur de la poésie de ma mère is the final part of this trilogy, and Disanka’s first solo performance.
In this new creation, Disanka connects the history of Congo with that of his mother in the form of a kasala – a sort of eulogy in the Kasai culture, which his mother was part of. As the only one of her ten children who inherited the writer’s bug, he also inherited his mother’s poetry. For this performance, he weaves her writings into the story of her family. From her birthplace of Kabeya Kamuanga – where separatist Albert Kalonji impounded their house as his headquarters in the 1960s – to Kinshasa, the beating heart of the DRC today, to Mbanza-Ngungu, where he wants to speak to people in his theatrical language.
For this creation, Michael Disanka uses a deeply personal form of dramaturgy, which he refers to as ‘scratching’. He took inspiration from the breathing techniques he learned as a stutterer. Through fragments of text, music and movement, he creates a unique visual, sonorous and musical journey.
Meet Michael Disanka
Michael Disanka is currently a columnist for the magazine Etcetera, as part of their Outside Eyes series. Read his contributions here.
Gallery
Already ended
- - KVS BOX
- - KVS BOX
- - KVS BOX
- - KVS BOX
- - Les rencontres à l'échelle - Marseille
