WIPCOOP, the Work In Progress Cooperation by Mestizo Arts Platform, is fast approaching its tenth edition in Brussels - What the WIP? The platform offers the arts sector and audiences a unique opportunity to get a behind the scenes glimpse and explore what the future holds in the performing arts. 

During WIPCOOP, on Thursday 9 October, Fanny Van Geel & Xavier Bascho-George & Claire Deniau, Leïla Alice, Lois Lumonga Brochez and Nazanin Bahrami each present thirty minutes of their Works In Progress. Expect a rich palette of themes, media and voices: from dance and humour to Arabic rhythms, classical piano, personal love letters to oneself — and even a mermaid. After the presentation, they converse with dramaturges, workshops, producers and arts programmers about their work and any possible support. The audience are able to participate in round tables or listen to short pitches by other interesting creators.

WIPCOOP takes place all year round: it’s a continuous development track in Brussels, Antwerp, Gent and Leuven. The goal is to give new artistic creations visibility, stimulate dialogue, and to bring artists and organisations together in order to continue developing new work in front of audiences. 

The network of partners is now growing beyond national borders. The first international edition of WIPCOOP took place in 2023, and in this year’s edition we’ll also welcome creators from Barcelona, Berlin and Amsterdam, as well as the usual Brussels cohort.

The works in progress are performed during the day, on Wednesday 8 October and Thursday 9 October, and are free to attend. Curious to see what came out of previous WIPCOOP editions, or which performances are showing this time? Visit www.mestizoartsplatform.be for more information.

PROGRAM – Thursday 09.10

• 09:30 – 10:00: Welcome with coffee & tea + introduction
• 10:00 – 10:30: leila alice invites you into the sensory universe of Lilo Soleil – an intimate ritual about identity, softness, and self-liberation.
• 10:30 – 11:30: Feedforward conversations, roundtable discussions with Joana Rossi, pitch & Kin Collective intervention.
• 11:30 – 12:00: In One Look, Fanny Van Geel, Xavier Bascho-George & Claire Deniau play with dance, voice, and classical piano in a dialogue about seeing, meeting, and embracing difference.
• 12:00 – 13:00: Feedforward conversations // 12:00 – 12:30: roundtable discussions, Kin Collective intervention // 12:30 – 13:30: Lunch break soup lunch
• 13:30 – 14:00: In An Exercise in Acknowledgement: The Black Hermit, Lois Lumonga Brochez brings to life a lost family history through voice, rhythm, and memory.
• 14:00 – 15:00: Feedforward conversations + roundtable discussions + pitch by Alphonse Eklou Uwantege + Kin Collective interventions.
• 15:00 – 15:30: Nazanin Bahrami presents Speech Lapse: Exhibition No. 4 as a response to the “Woman – Life – Freedom” uprising that began in Iran in September 2022. She focuses on how state censorship, fear, and urgency suppress speech, and on the quiet work of healing carried out by those who continue to write nonetheless.
• 15:30 – 16:30: Feedback, roundtable discussions, Kin Collective intervention.
   

leïla alice – Lilo Soleil

In Lilo Soleil, leïla alice creates a sensory universe in which poetry, music, make-up, and scenography merge into an intimate ritual. Through the alter ego Lilo Soleil – a mermaid who speaks in color and sound – they explore the reconciliation of multiple identities. The body becomes a canvas, the voice an archive, and the space a cocoon where softness and strength coexist. Lilo Soleil is both diary and dream – an island where the unspoken finds its voice. A search for belonging that transcends language, origin, and gender.

leïla alice (they/them) is a transdisciplinary maker with roots in the Rwandan diaspora, based in Brussels. Through performance, poetry, and visual language, they explore how alter egos can heal, challenge, and play. Their work begins with the body and instinct, creating spaces where vulnerability and representation engage in dialogue. With Lilo Soleil, leïla alice makes room for what was never allowed or able to exist – both for themself and for those who share the search for a home within themselves.

Credits: Concept & performance: leïla alice // With thanks to Pianofabriek // Supported by Mestizo Arts Platform/WIPCOOP.

Fanny Van Geel, Xavier Bascho-George & Claire Deniau – One Look

One Look is a multidisciplinary performance in which dance (hip hop, krump, tricking, and flamenco influences), voice, and classical piano enter into dialogue. The gaze is central – as a point of contact between people, a window into each other’s worlds, a mirror of what we sometimes prefer to hide. In a playful exchange of each other’s disciplines, the performers explore one another’s universes and invite the audience to see through different eyes. One Look advocates empathy, the embrace of difference, and the beauty of genuine encounter.

Fanny Van Geel (she/her) is a professional dancer with a background in hip hop, contemporary, and flamenco. She is also a physiotherapist and holds a doctorate in neurorehabilitation, combining her love of science and dance in work with neurological patients. She performs internationally for various artists and TV shows, and can also be found in theatres.

Xavier Bascho-George (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist active as a dancer, singer, spoken word writer, tricker, and “professional (day)dreamer.” Alongside his artistic work, he is training to become an interpreter – building bridges between worlds in a literal sense as well.

Claire Deniau (she/her) is a classical pianist, a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. In addition to performing and teaching piano, she is a kinesiologist.

The three artists met in 2018 during Groundwork, an intensive workshop by TIMISS-Groundwork, where the first seeds of One Look were planted – an encounter that continued to resonate. They were later selected by STRAATRIJK to further develop the project, with additional guidance from Nordinne Traghane.

Credits: Concept & performance: Fanny Van Geel, Xavier Bascho-George & Claire Deniau // Coach: Nordinne Traghane // Supported by Mestizo Arts Platform/WIPCOOP.
 

Lois Lumonga Brochez – An Exercise in Acknowledgement: The Black Hermit

In An Exercise in Acknowledgement: The Black Hermit – named after the play by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o – Lois Lumonga Brochez takes you on a personal journey in search of Isaiah Pulania Lukanganyma, her Zambian grandfather she never met. Drawing inspiration from the oral storytelling traditions of the Bemba and Kaonde cultures, she uses voice, rhythm, and collective memory to breathe life into a lost archive. In doing so, she explores how to give recognition to what has been lost or destroyed – and works toward a practice of restoration.

Lois Lumonga Brochez (she/her/they/them) is an actor—active primarily in theatre and performance art. She has appeared in Human Landscapes: Book I (2018) by Michiel Vandevelde, Het betreft liefde (It’s About Love, 2019) by Tine Van Aerschot, Vier Sterren (Four Stars, 2022) and Bite Me (2023) by KIN, The Waves (2022) and Ensemble Piece, Exhume Buried Cries / Beauty Love / Reanimate the Dead (2023) by Khadija El Kharraz Alami, and Vier muren (Four Walls, 2025) by Marios Bellas.

After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, she co-founded KIN Collective in 2018 together with her graduating class – a transdisciplinary artists’ collective dedicated to research, community building, and care through storytelling (in the broadest sense of the word). Within this collective, they work on the HERITAGE trajectory, which pushes the boundaries of theatre toward a wider, more investigative form of artistic and social engagement. The first steps toward An Exercise in Acknowledgement: The Black Hermit emerged during this long-term process, marking their first independent work.

Credits: concept & performance: Lois Lumonga Brochez // with the support of Mestizo Arts Platform / WIPCOOP, Kin Collective, and Alix Konadu Opoku Bosompra 

Nazanin Bahrami — Speech Lapse: Exhibition No. 4

Speech Lapse: Exhibition No. 4 emerged in response to the “Woman – Life – Freedom” uprising that began in Iran in September 2022. The project traces the written aftershocks of protest: diary fragments, coded chat logs, notes scribbled on receipts, time-stamped transcripts of spoken words. Each document carries risk and enacts resistance simply by being recorded. The performance focuses on disruption: how state censorship, fear, and urgency suppress speech, and on the quiet work of repair carried out by those who continue to write nonetheless. By weaving private testimonies into a shared, ever-shifting archive, Speech Lapse investigates how memory can shift when official history shuts its doors.

Nazanin Bahrami (she/her) is a performance artist and theatre maker whose work unfolds at the intersection of performance, collage, and painting. She holds a BA in Acting and Directing from the University of Tehran and an MA in Applied Theatre Studies from Justus Liebig University in Giessen. In 2017, she founded the research-driven art collective Un-formula, fostering dialogue between performance and visual art while embracing social and cultural practices. Committed to examining the role of art in society, she furthered her expertise through the program Art as Social Practice. Her creative practice focuses on the performative exploration of grief and death, with special attention to the gendered dimensions of mourning. Through lecture-performances, dance, and other formats, she examines how female bodies experience grief, protest, and resistance across time. For this work in progress, Nazanin collaborates with Tatwerk Berlin.