Broken Home, My Shrine
EVENING PROGRAMME
“It always happens in my chest. A very specific spot. The spot where my pain of non-belonging belongs.”
We move, in search of feelings of belonging, feelings of home. All while physical homes are blown apart, washed away, occupied, stolen or forgotten. We move, not to explain, not to fix, but to carry it. To carry the wonder and chaos, the contradictions, the desires, dreams and memories, of this never-ending journey. And to hold its complexity. We move. Because movement is who we are.
With Broken Home, My Shrine, Alix Konadu (whom you may know from her work in Hannibal and Burning City) creates a multidisciplinary performance about migration and identity. Two intertwined perspectives are at its core: those who move, and those who grow up in the echo of that movement. The migrant, and the migrant’s child.
For seven years, the maker collected testimonies from people who left a home behind and started again elsewhere, or whose family did so. These interviews form the guiding thread of the performance. Their stories merge with the personal histories of the performers themselves.
Drawing inspiration from personal stories and traditions of shrines and objects that carry memory and belonging, the performers create a shared journey through live music and storytelling. Starting from the fact that migration is part of the human experience, love and connection allow past and future to meet, holding on to humanity where it is so easily lost.
In the studio with Alix Konadu
Meet the team
© Asiome
Alix Konadu
Alix Konadu is a performer, actress, and theatre maker of Belgian-Ghanaian descent based in Brussels. She works across television and film (Loslopend Wild, Familie, Binti) as well as on stage. Together with Ben Tanghe, she forms the collective Omelett, which tours with the children’s production Badkruipers. At Madam Fortuna, she directed 45 women in a production marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. She is currently performing in Vier Muren by Marios Bellas and developing her first solo project. For this, she is in residence at Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre, previously spent three months at perfocraZe International Artist Residency in Kumasi (Ghana), and will continue her research at Alkantara in Lisbon. A recurring theme in her work is the exploration of physical and mental boundaries, particularly in relation to identity, displacement, and the search for connection.
Lois Lumonga Brochez
Lois Lumonga Brochez a.k.a Lazy Clalypso (she/they) is part of KIN Collective a transdisciplinary art collective based in Belgium. In her/their own artistic practice and research she/they submerge(s) herself/themselves in the traditions of African (oral) storytelling. Guided by her/their late baKaonde grandfather, and her/their matrilineal Bemba heritage. She/They draw inspiration from the rivers and the cosmos, from songs and poetry passed down from generation to generation, holding (hi)stories not as stagnant information but as a living and a shape-shifting presence. Her/Their practice resists purely cerebral modes of processing. Instead, it centers the expressive, the embodied, and the ancestral (through voice, movement, collage and assemblage, and (re)enactment) as valid and necessary sites of knowledge transmission.
© Gaël Bros
Raphaële Green
After studying Political Science in Louvain-la-Neuve, Raphaële Green studied Classical Singing and Lyric Art at the Institut Royal Supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie in Namur, before continuing her training in the United States with Marilyn Mims. She is a laureate of the MM Academy of La Monnaie and was a member of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen’s Young Soloists Ensemble during the 2019–2020 season. At ease across a wide range of repertoires, Raphaële performs internationally in both classical and contemporary works, including Romeo and Juliet, Suor Angelica, Rusalka, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, María de Buenos Aires, Satyagraha and Ali. She also regularly performs in recital with Lionel Bams. Beyond opera, Raphaële combines her lyrical voice with other artistic disciplines, as in Maison Chaos by Joëlle Sambi and Sara Machine, and Dear Winnie and Hannibal at KVS. Her choice of projects reflects a strong engagement with contemporary social issues. Raphaële has received several awards in Belgium and abroad, including First Prizes at the Bell’Arte International Singing Competition, the Gold Coast Chapter NATS Auditions and Triomphe de l’Art, as well as the Audience Prize at the Africa Lyric’s Opera Vocal International Competition in Paris. She also appears on albums by Line Adam and Stéphane Orlando, including the soundtrack of Night Falls, in which she performs.
© Danny Willems
Mirko Banovic
Mirko Banovic studied jazz bass at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent. Known for his versatile technique and distinctive sound, he plays both electric and double bass and occasionally lends his voice to projects. As a sought-after bassist and session musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Arno, Arsenal, Zita Swoon, An Pierlé, Jane Birkin, Axelle Red, Adamo, dEUS and Gabriel Rios. He has performed at festivals including Rock Werchter, Couleur Café, Montreux Jazz Festival and Pinkpop. Mirko also composes and creates music for dance and theatre productions, including Tambours Battants (Theater Zuidpool), Surfer Rosa Begijntje (HETNIEUWSTEDELIJK) and When I look at a Strawberry, I think of a Tongue, in collaboration with Lisi Estaràs and Kristien De Proost. More recently, he worked on Burning City (hetpaleis), R.I.S.A. and Hannibal (KVS), and composed the music for Nos Feux, a dance production by choreographer Léa Vinette. Together with Berlinde Deman, he forms the experimental duo Hum., combining bass guitar, serpent and electronics. He also teaches electric bass at PXL-Music in Hasselt.
Playlist
Credits
CONCEPT Alix Konadu MUSIC & PERFORMANCE Alix Konadu, Raphaële Green, Lois Lumonga Brochez, Mirko Banovic ARTISTIC GUIDANCE Guilherme Kirchheim DRAMATURGY Kristin Rogghe OUTSIDE EYE Junior Mthombeni SET DESIGN Rachid Laachir TECHNICAL PRODUCTION & LIGHTING Elric Reinartz LIGHTING DESIGN Ellie Bryce MOVEMENT COACH Massinda Zinga PRODUCTION MANAGER Miya Aronson PRODUCER Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre CO-PRODUCERS KVS, Kunstenwerkplaats KWP, Arenberg, Rif MADE POSSIBLE WITH THE SUPPORT OF the Flemish Government and the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter measure via Cronos Invest & PerPodium RESIDENCY SUPPORT Le Bamp, perfocraZe International Artist Residency (pIAR), Espaçao Alkantara THANKS TO everyone who shared their story for this project