On July 1, we celebrate the abolition of slavery with Keti Koti ('broken chains'). For curator, performer and plantwoman Rose-Myrtha Vercammen Fortuna, Keti Koti mainly means rethinking what freedom can be. During a residency at de Brakke Grond, she continues to work on her performance Matrigenesis, inspired by the chapter with the same title in Malcom Ferdinand's book A decolonial ecology. The performance is an investigation into rituals to reclaim the earth as the mother of our existence. This is done through various rituals, rooted in the fight for freedom of the maroons: escaped enslaved people and their descendants.
For her residency and the program Rebirthing // Re-earthing, Vercammen Fortuna invites two artists to embark on this quest together: interdisciplinary artist Jota Mombaça, meditation guide and voice performer Céline Gaza and photographer Jorge Luis. The makers focus on the process of dying and being reborn. Together with the audience, they explore our relationship to the circular process of life and death. “With our hands in the earth, we will bury objects, concepts, ideologies, thoughts, emotions and ultimately ourselves. How do we as humans relate to the circular process of life and death?"
This program is presented in the context of Theater for Keti Koti.
