Overview: A One-Hour Event with a World of Impact
In a program that runs for a concise hour, Faustin Linyekula’s latest collaboration unfolds as a seismic experience rather than a traditional spectacle. The piece is described as almost mute, a concert of gesture and breath that crescendos through movement, imagery, and percussion. It centers on a Congo facing decades of conflict, where the act of merely standing can feel political and perilous. Yet on stage in Lausanne’s Théâtre de Vidy, the artist refuses to accept resignation. He invites audiences to witness a stark, urgent proposition: to stand up as a form of resistance against the systemic violence that has scarred the Congo for thirty years.
The Core of the Performance: Slow, Accelerating Gesture
On the front line of the stage, a dancer—Inès Mangominja—produces motion that is at once restrained and eruptive. Her movements are slow and decomposed, a process of reconnection with the body that can fracture into convulsions or ascend toward transcendence. The choreography is less about spectacle than a disciplined, intimate dialogue with pain and memory. Behind her, a canvas becomes a living screen, its imagery projecting a voracious power: scenes and traditions that struggle for survival. The dancer’s body, in dialogue with projected memory, makes the politics of endurance felt rather than simply observed.
Stagecraft: Sound, Light, and Visual Score
Providing a steadying counterpoint, percussionist Huguette Tolinga anchors the piece with a presence that is both intimate and formidable. Her rhythmic backbone offers reassurance and momentum, a sonic pulse through which the emotional landscape is navigated. Franck Moka, handling the machines and the visual design, guides the piece’s crescendo. A musician and filmmaker in one, he navigates technology and image with a sensibility that respects the fragility of the moment while amplifying its urgency. The collaboration is a careful balance of kinetic dance, live sound, and projected imagery, a visual score that invites the audience to listen with their eyes as well as their ears.
A New Congo: Historical Context as A Living Canvas
The show places Congo’s brutal three-decade conflict at the core of the experience, not as a background but as an active presence. The idea that standing up is a form of violence in Congo is treated with nuance, not sensationalism. The performance uses the body to question and redefine what it means to resist: is resistance applause, a sway of the hip, a refusal to be erased? The canvas projections of traditions—sparingly shown and are charged with urgency—are a reminder that culture itself can become a battleground for survival. Through the interplay of dance, image, and rhythm, the piece makes visible the quiet courage of people who continue to endure and create under pressure.
Creative Partnership: A Dialogue Across Generations
The collaboration is born from a long-standing friendship and shared artistic curiosity between Faustin Linyekula and Franck Moka. Their dialogue, conducted across stage and screen, yields a performance that is at once personal and universal. Mangominja’s movement and Tolinga’s percussion are not merely performers; they are voices in a wider conversation about memory, violence, and resilience. The evening in Lausanne marks a significant moment of cross-cultural exchange, where Congolese truth-telling meets European dramaturgy in a form that respects pace, silence, and the power of suggestion.
Premiere and Reception: A Quiet, Electric Response
Debuting at Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, the show arrived as a potent reminder that theatre and dance can act as civic acts. The one-hour format intensifies attention, making every gesture and every sound count. The audience is invited into a space where sound is felt as much as heard, where images on a fabric screen carry memory, and where the simplest movement can carry the weight of a nation’s history. It is a performance that resists easy readings, inviting spectators to reflect on violence, memory, and the possibility of standing up—together—as a political act of hope.
Conclusion: Art as Resistance and Celebration
Ultimately, the production is a testament to art’s capacity to bear witness and inspire action. It refuses to let violence define a people; instead, it reaffirms dignity, creativity, and the stubborn resolve to endure. In Congo, to stand is to claim space, voice, and future—an act that this intimate, electric solo makes feel urgent and possible.
