“We are here, because you are destroying our countries”. The African artists, whose voice is strongly limited when it comes to social or political processes, both in their original and in their new homeland, feel something akin to a “double homelessness”. How can they still keep a strong identity? "Ne touchez pas ma terre, c'est ma terre!" Are these borders necessary to preserve an individuals identity? In the tension between personal pride and the feeling of having lost everything, in “Grenzland” five dancers and two musicians explore everything from disruption, alienation and anger through to strong physical conflict.
The European and African artists that are part of this project are strangers in the place they currently live. What makes them strangers is obvious; their origin. What makes them continue to be strangers is more complicated; their current life conditions? The space between stigmatisation and enrichment, between exclusion and absorption should be set “in movement” in this project.
“Grenzland” sharpens the focus on how we observe other cultures and considers the implications of current perceptions of cultural superiority. This project is intending to show and explore the experience of mutual alienation. The objective cannot therefore be the unification of a certain pre-determined harmony, but rather the target will be the dynamic space. The contradiction and the tension are going to be transposed into dancing and new perspectives are going to be disclosed to the audience: “White is not white, and black is not black”. The borders of being different do not match geographical ones. The forward-looking composition of artists with such different origins, deliberately chosen by their biography and conflict potentiality, allows them to deal with the idea of strangeness and to accomplish something that is only possible through the experience of every single individual.
We all love dancing, but we feel there are also other important reasons to realise this project. In the multicultural world we live in today, in which we are constantly being merged and at the same time still feeling like a foreigner.
A big incentive and cause of migration from Africa is to escape, to move to new pastures which allow an individual to earn money and create a new life. This is not always easy, both practically and emotionally. This potential promise of a better life is driving migration and rapidly increasing refugees. Ironic then, that Africa is being constantly torn apart by white domination, through land grabbing and other commercial exploitations from Europe and the US. This 'acquiring' of African resources sets the cogs in motion, keeping people in poverty with very few ways out.
This is clarified not only by the constant increasing number of refugees, but also by a gradual change of consciousness in the public opinion. The German and European reporting differs in a significant way from that of Africa. “Grenzland” is not about finding a solution to bad politics, but instead offering an alternative to an established view of life. The project highlights conflicts experienced on a daily basis between people from different cultures and in foreign environments. “Grenzland” starts with people for whom it is necessary to find a new interaction. Therefore the dancers have been deliberately chosen according to their different biographies and conflict potential.
If the funding is approved we will use it to cover the expenses for the musical element of the project. This will cover:
- The concept & composition, including the writing process
- Recording
- Mixing & mastering in a professional studio
in addition to:
- Wages
- Travel and accommodation costs
- Technical material and instrumentation
Concept & choreography: Karolin Stächele
Dancers: Amael Mavoungou, Marta Capaccioli, Nia Shand, Tidiani N'Diaye, Yannis Karalis,
Music: Djeli Kouyaté, Paul Tinsley
www.dagada.org
www.paul-tinsley.com
www.djelikouyate.de
Check out the music from GRENZLAND as a work in progress.
From musician Paul Tinsley.
https://soundcloud.com/paul-tinsley-music/sets/grenzland-music-teasers