Commun.e - Dorothée Munyaneza & Buhlebezwe Siwani

Commun.e - Session 1 : Contemplations on cultural formations, resilience, resistance and ways of being together

Dorothee Munyaneza & Buhlebezwe Siwani - Guherekeza

(Guherekeza means to accompany our departed ones. To bring them to that place of rest). 

my dear friend Hlengiwe Lushaba Madlala once told me ‘what we do is not a performance it’s a ceremony’

i cheat, a performance is not really a performance; it is communing

thinking about soil and flowers

i thought to myself about having dinner and asking people to sit

or begin a first part with food

flowers and fruits all come from the soil to which we return, whether through the violence of war, genocide, greed, corruption or natural circumstances

i keep thinking about abundance

how we are abundant, how alive we are. we are still here

Making people dine as we recite stories of abundance, of hunger, and as they eat it, the colors trigger something

the cloth would be soil then we would have flowers

we invite people to sit and eat as we go back and forth with these tales, lyrics, sounds that have some resonance

yes yes yes yes yes yes

absolutely

storytelling while people are eating food that may no longer be edible

thinking about colors

red

gold

like in most african countries’ flags

we could use specific flowers

flower arrangements on presidential tables

think of flowers and food like that

soil

a big table

how many people to sit at the table in a socially distanced way

what kind of food should we serve the cutlery should it shmanzy

and some sort of desert

food should be

either

very very european

or

super african

and maybe african flowers

i don’t know what your thoughts are

i have a couple of texts that i am thinking about

the national anthem

it was cut from what it was to include the language of afrikaans and english and that in itself becomes a problem because it speaks about how the settlers’ inherent in our culture

what do you feel like should be worn as well

i have been looking at food images from the continent and the african diaspora these images and gestures of food sharing

we don’t have time to cook it so we may have to buy it

there are restaurants where we could order african food

in noailles

but it might be tricky if they don’t know how to use their fingers to eat the food

we could put cutlery

eating with hands

i think that soil is a good idea and flowers

i know that some african flowers are really expensive the other day i went to a florist and found some flowers i grew up with and they were really expensive so i don’t know if they have the budget for that if we ask for many flowers

as for the table we could get a good enough size table and sit ten people around it

the rest just watch the people who might be eating, who want to eat or can’t eat

using hands

i was looking at the way the women were

using hands

we can incorporate

hands

a movement we do together while telling the story

time to cook small things that we eat together

nothing big

pounded yam with some ekushi

basically take away the cutlery or put the cutlery by the flowers

inside the soil so nobody can actually touch it

scent

smell

think about the budget for the costume

flowers are also representational

flowers that speak of happiness and also spark joy

think of a particular colored flower

colors are very significant and important

when it comes to joy

when it comes to the bereaved

we can get the flowers on our own

let’s go to sleep

the cutlery in the soil

food to eat with hands

flowers on our own

as for the costumes i have some things at home that i have used for other performances that i could bring along tomorrow for you to see if they inspire you in any way

have a wonderful evening

sleep well

At the end of the day, Buhlebezwe Siwani explained how this performance was conceived, during a conversation gathering  Moesha 13, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Ziphozenkosi Dayile, Flora Fettah and the audience. 

Dorothée Munyaneza is a multidisciplinary Rwandan and British artist based in Marseille. Dorothée Munyaneza starts from reality to capture memory and the body, with music, song, dance and text.

In 2006, Dorothée Munyaneza met François Verret for Sans Retour. Dorothée Munyaneza has worked with artists such as Alain Mahé, Ko Murobushi, Stéphanie Coudert, Rachid Ouramdane, Maya Mihindou, Alain Buffard and Radouan Mriziga. In 2013, Dorothée Munyaneza founded her artistic company, Compagnie Kadidi. Dorothée Munyaneza is an Associate Artist of the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris and Théâtre de Chaillot.

Buhlebezwe Siwani was raised in Johannesburg, due to the nomadic nature of her upbringing she has also lived in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal. Siwani works predominantly in the medium of performance and installations, she includes photographic stills and videos of some performances. She uses the videos and the stills as a stand in for her body which is physically absent from the space. Siwani completed her BAFA at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg in 2011 and her MFA at the Michealis School of Fine Arts in 2015. She has exhibited at the Michaelis Galleries in Cape Town, Alexandra township, Commune 1, and Stevenson in Cape Town. Lives and works between Amsterdam and Cape Town.

_{Costumes : Stéphanie Coudert}

_{Translation English to French : Zahra Tavassoli Zea}

_{Videos ©  Margaux Vendassi}

_{Subtitles - Mohammed Aitallah}

_{Photography © Grégoire d’Ablon}

_{© Architectes Rudy Ricciotti et Roland Carta / Mucem}