Or no longer it is an unusual scent that fills the room at the Festival Confit de Cavaillon in southern France. The marginally sweet and earthy scent comes from a mafé, bubbling away on the stage. Nevertheless the performance “Autophagies” by director Eva Doumbia is now not any longer handiest about cooking: it merges memory, historical past, awareness of the past and of the self, bringing to the stage the varied tales of migration, colonial heritage, dance, song and pointless to say, African cuisine.
Nevertheless at the back of the playful ballet of the senses lies a political dimension. The place does the food that we take into consideration “ours” really approach from? What tales – normally violent – does it carry? These are some of the questions the director and author seeks to ask with “Autophagies”.
“It’s really a play that criticises the devastating impact of colonisation. Colonisation and food are closely related,” says Eva Doumbia.
On this kitchen-stage, dance plays a crucial position. Bamoussa Diomande, dancer, actor and choreographer, wakes recollections by means of his rich and contrastful circulate.
“It’s contemporary dance, it’s African dance, and it’s also a lot of coupé-décalé, which is a dance for young people in Abidjan. So, when I dance, I really get goosebumps and it motivates me, because dance for me is also a type of sport and it gives me a lot of energy. I have fun with my own movements,” he explains.
The historical past of food, the historical past of identification
By way of the historical past of rice, of sugar, of chocolate or of bananas, Doumbia tells the tale of globalisation in all its facets – even the darkest ones. Slavery, exploitation and migration are among the central themes of “Autophagies”, which keeps on asking: will we really belong right here, even though our food is the made of colonialism? And what does “here” mean?
Nevertheless the performance is by far no longer handiest extreme: laughter, tenderness and pleasure weave their way at some stage in its movements and song. And then finally, the mafé, which gets prepared as the viewers watch, is served at the tip of the performance. Every person assembles around it, is reconciled and nourished.
The emotional complexity of the performance would now not chase uncared for for the viewers.
“It was both moving and playful, I really enjoyed it. I was really immersed in it, the play made me travel. And I also learned a lot, I’m very happy,” says Myriam Douhi, who was in the audience.
“Autophagies” stands out among the celebration of vibrant cultures, residing memory and gastronomy at the Festival Confit de Cavaillon.
Merging judgment of correct and unsuitable and senses, it becomes a really collective experience.
