podcast series

LISTENING BODIES / CORPS À L’ÉCOUTE

In eight episodes, selected African artists from the field of dance and performance are presented: Chuma Sopotela (South Africa), Edna Jaime (Mozambique), Fatou Cissé (Senegal), Julie Iarisoa (Madagascar), Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja (Namibia), Ogutu Muraya (Kenya), Serge Aimé Coulibaly (Burkina Faso) and Zora Snake (Cameroon). They provide insights into their personal careers, their working methods, their artistic concerns and the socio-political contexts of their work. The diversity of their personalities and approaches offer an interesting panorama of current trends in the performing arts on the African continent.

The podcast background

The SPIELART Theatre Festival has been working more closely with African artists since 2017. It is important to us not only to present their work, but also to give our audience an insight into the background and working conditions of the projects. This is how the idea of a podcast series originated, which is to be continued.

Sarah Israel, who has been associated with us for a long time and was most recently a guest at the SPIELART Theatre Festival as dramaturg of the production THE DRYING PRAYER by Taigué Ahmed (Chad), is working with two internationally recognised curators for LISTENING BODIES / CORPS À L'ÉCOUTE: Rucera Seethal (Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival, Makhanda) as partner for the English-speaking countries, and Patrick Acogny (dancer and choreographer) as partner for the French-speaking countries of the African continent. Their common interest is to enable a sensitive and informed reception of productions from the African continent and at the same time to establish a practical relationship with African artists.

Review

Three of the artists featured in the podcast have already been guests at the SPIELART Theatre Festival: Chuma Sopotela (LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX: THE BEGINNING OF WAR and THOSE GHELS, 2017/ DIKGARURU, 2019), Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja (ONDAANISA YO POMUDHIME, 2019) and Ogutu Muraya (NOBODY KNOWS MY NAME, 2015/ BECAUSE I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE RUNNING, 2017/ ON THIN ICE, 2019 and co-curated as part of NEW FREQUENCIES, 2021).

The project is financed and supported by the Goethe Institut Munich.

All talks can be found here.