DigiTales across Borders 2.0 - a workshop where artists from Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Germany and France worked together to create a performance of music and story telling.
Milena Kipfmüller and Klaus Janek (sounding situations), two music, sound and theatre artists from Berlin, participated in the project as an interface between staging, radio and sound art.
How was the artistic work for you in Rwanda?
We had a great place to rehearse, the RAI-Rwanda Art Initiative and luckily we had a few days to really develop something with our colleagues so that we could try something new. Very exciting!
How were the encounters with the different artists for you? And how was the cooperation with them?
We set ourselves a not quite simple but exciting task. Namely, to form a kind of improvisational collective with our colleagues on site within a week, in which everyone can intervene during the performance in the sense of a joint performance. There were no textbook or precise agreements, but all seven participants played together with what everyone had at their disposal in terms of knowledge and skills. Since they are all really great artists, some with decades of experience in their professions, this worked out excellently - even though the format was new and we first had to get to know each other. We really had a lot of fun together, which the audience saw and felt during the performance!
The two of you were already in Rwanda for two weeks in January. What were you particularly looking forward to during your second visit?
The climate is definitely a factor, perfect tempering. But we were especially happy to meet those who have become friends in the meantime.
What was a challenge for you during your time here?
The biggest challenge was to develop a setting in which all participants, regardless of their cultural and artistic background, act on their own responsibility and create the piece simultaneously and in real time.
What is your next project?
We are invited to the Operadagen in Rotterdam with a project we did last year next week, but we are still working on it. A mobile urban opera that moves through the city with musicians and a radio system. And then we prepare the tour with the "Rwandan Records", with which we will hopefully come back to Rwanda next year.
Thank you very much and all the best!
