Kanga Nianzé refers to a village about 100 km from Abidjan. Slaves were bathed there before being deported. This ritual was thought to have the power to erase the past of those who bathed there.
"To know your history is to know yourself. To loose one's history is to lose one's identity and potentially to conform to the one imposed on you."
The Ivorian contemporary dance company of twenty dancers "Les Pieds Dans La Mare", wishes to implement a research-creation-action program that will follow "The Slave Route" in Côte d'Ivoire in 2023.
The objective is to collect testimonies, involve specialists and international artists and propose artistic actions for the inhabitants.
This process involving Ivorian, French and German actors will lead to the creation of a show, but also to the production of a documentary web-series and an album aiming to forge an African narrative of this history.
Jenny Mézile, École d‘Art Les Pieds dans la mare/Abidjan
SONIC Interventions/Berlin
Carlos Manuel/Berlin
Théâtre des arts vivants/Bannes
This project is part of round 13 of the International Coproduction Fund, year 2023.