‘My body, my archive’

In our movement, breath, and voice we bear the elusive and mysterious traces of where we come from. In his latest creation, My Body, My Archive (2023), Congolese choreographer and dancer Faustin Linyekula digs deep into his own body which serves as a tangible archive of his country and ancestors. With Banataba (2018), Linyekula created a ritual for his ancestors in the shadow of the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, now he continues his search for a family archive shattered by history, the fragments spread between his body and Congo. For this new performance, he takes a journey through his artistic oeuvre and family history, focusing on what was often missing in the genealogy of his family: the stories of women. He pays respect to and evokes them by a commissioned series of wooden statues crafted by Gbaga, a Lengola sculptor. Linyekula starts a conversation with the eight figures standing in Bozar’s monumental Horta Hall, accompanied on trumpet by Heru Shabaka-Ra of the Sun Ra Arkestra. In this moving dialogue, maternal ancestors recount the past in Lengola land while Linyekula dances their presence in his life today.

Presentation: Kunstenfestivaldesarts,

Bozar Choreography and dance: Faustin Linyekula 

Trumpet: Heru Shabaka-Ra  

Assistant dramaturgy: Dorcas Mulamba 

Sound and video creation: Franck Moka 

Costumes: Aldina de JesusProduction: Studios Kabako

Coproduction: Chaillot - Théâtre National de la danse, Théâtre Vidy-LausanneWith the support of: Arts and Humanities Division, New York University Abu Dhabi

Thanks to: Catherine Wood and Tate Modern