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In a world fixated on the unyielding acceleration of technological progress, this interactive theatre installation in-development urges audiences to reconnect with the tangible through a resounding affirmation of collective belonging. Deep within a dystopian assemblage of electronic waste—discarded cables, defunct screens and obsolete motherboards—audiences enter a subterranean laboratory, both relic of the present and forewarning of the environmental degradation shaping our future.
The piece draws on ancestral wisdom and Afrofuturist visions to question the virtual megastructures that define our age. The performers invite participants to become co-creators of the unfolding narrative and resist digital dependencies that erode freedoms and fuel disconnection. Together, they trace new trajectories for unlearning the automations of modern existence in an immersive experience that challenges audiences to 'hack the code' and rediscover what it means to be fully human in a time of digital alienation.
The public is invited to a studio showing (February 7, 2025 | 5-7 PM) of this work-in-progress for a special glimpse into the artists’ creative process, providing a unique opportunity to engage in a collaborative conversation between audience and creators. More info
This project is led by the duo Joseph K. Kasau Wa Mambwe from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Majula Drammeh from Sweden, in collaboration with Franck Moka (Sound designer, Congo) and Thabiso Persson (Light designer, Sweden).
Together, the artists are thinking about a more innovative and interactive theatrical creation that straddles installation, performance, poetry and visual formats. They take as their starting point from everyday observations of the societies in which they live, strongly marked by human fractures, and translate them freely into futuristic fiction that summons people around an ideal of shared survival, if not collective resistance to the effects of technologies that affect the social body. The title What is already here? reflects the need to reconsider tactility as a remedy for an increasingly virtual and unreal society. With this title, the artists rethink the paradigm of virtuality and act to question a real emergency: humanity and its fracture!
What is already here? is a futuristic (Afro)play that deploys the intelligence of Africanist thought as a solution to reclaiming a form of society that has disappeared since the era of 'modernity' when, centuries ago, a new world order was imposed on all the planets. In this world order, the last entity to be defeated was the human being. Humanity as we knew it no longer exists. The years are counted in binary numbers and we are in the year 000110100110. All beings have become Humanoid.
By bringing together artists who develop very different artistic practices (visual arts, creative writing, theater, performance, dance, music, etc.), the project confronts the artists and invites them to integrate this need for human reconnection as a prerequisite to their creation. From this challenge, the artists create from their own places, but also those of others. The creation combines performative materials such as speech, movement and dance, electronic music, video and installation art.
What is already here is an installation and interactive theatrical creation that explores the urgent need to reconnect as a means of saving the human in all of us. The play offers a poetic and creative way out through the art of the spoken word as a symbol of relearning the first practices, the healthy ones, and above all finding the balance to remain human in spite of everything, and right now. In What is already here? the audience is invited to reconnect with its own body, its mind and the importance of interconnection in real life for the survival of the human race. As the performance is interactive, we are asking the audience to be part of the story, not to witness it.
The installation is partly composed of materials that we take for granted today to achieve the quality of life we have today. It is a commentary on the unsustainable electronic consumption of today's Western world. The work uses electronic waste. This waste has often used Africa's natural resources to create electronic modules for the West. When these are in turn used, the waste, which often consists of computers, phones, ipads, etc., is sent back to the African continent. The performance uses this waste to create the installation and offers it to users in the places where the work is carried out.
The entire installation is created from second-hand, recycled materials.
From January 24 to February 7, 2025, 4 artists (including 1 online) are coming to Vancouver with project: What is already here? an interactive theatrical installation that encourages the public to reconnect with the tangible through a resounding affirmation of our collective belonging to a form of humanity that is on the verge of disappearing. A humanity to be sought out and rediscovered. Where to start? Perhaps with what is already there?
In a world fixated on the unstoppable acceleration of technological progress, an experimental laboratory becomes the stage for a polymorphic reflection on the collective future of humankind. At the heart of a dystopian assemblage of electronic waste: electrical cables, faulty screens, obsolete motherboards, etc., the audience enters a chaotic universe, both a relic of the present and a harbinger of the environmental degradation that is shaping our future. Carried by 4 bodies, voices and shadows, this story has a particularity: it belongs to everyone at the same time. It is fiction and a mise en abyme of the human desire to escape our own sociability.
Drawing on conspiracy theories at the dawn of Covid, above all ancestral wisdom and Afrofuturist visions of living together, the piece challenges the virtual megastructures that define our age. The artists invite participants to become co-creators of the unfolding narrative and to resist the digital addictions that erode freedoms and fuel disconnection. Together, they map out new trajectories for unlearning the automatisms of modern existence in an immersive experience that challenges audiences to 'hack the code' and rediscover what it means to be fully human at a time when every screen we turn on has drained our existential sparks.
The residency at VIVO Media Arts is part of this ongoing process of unlearning: through moments of laboratory research, meetings and exchanges with other artists, students and the public at Vivo and at the Push Festival, the artists nurture an ambition to build a dialogue with the community about what we are becoming together by inviting them into their open studio of this work-in-progress for a special insight into the artists' creative process, offering a unique opportunity to engage in a collaborative conversation between the public and the creators.
Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE): Mobility fund for a residency in Stockholm in 2024, Site specific (hosting the residency in Stockholm), Konträr, French Institute of Lubumbashi (residency fund in Lubumbashi as part of the biennial in October 2024), VIII Lubumbashi Biennale (off programme for the Performance Lecture What is already here in October 2024), Centre d'art Picha (organiser of the Biennale de Lubumbashi) and Biasasa Centre d'art (hosting a residency in Lubumbashi in October 2024).
The PuSh 20 lineup features 25 presentations that are dedicated to inspired risk-taking and dynamic interdisciplinary collaboration. The 2025 Festival features more than 25 presentations including 20 original and audacious works of performing art that push boundaries and explore form within the realm of theatre, dance, multi-media, and music; five animated parties and cabaret-style events; two film events; and two artist residencies, one of which will culminate in an open studio showing by international guest artists.
VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.
A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.
There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.
To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.
Born and based in Lubumbashi since 1995, Joseph K. Kasau Wa Mambwe holds a degree in Information and Communication Sciences with a specialisation in Performing Arts. With a trans-disciplinary practice that questions structures of dispossession and solidarity, Joseph's artistic gesture revolves around the urgent need to produce new narratives. From theatre and film to photography, installation and creative writing, his work addresses the complexity of memory and identity in a post-colonial urban context. Her research and productions pay close attention to social interactions, highlighting power relations and proposing alternatives for change and coming together.
His experience as a researcher and artistic director has enabled him to develop projects that put people at the centre of all her creations, reflecting on more tactile and human ways of making the world, and affirming his commitment to the environmental cause through stage and installation creations that are part of a global conversation in favour of a decolonial ecology.
Majula Drammeh (born 1982) is an interdisciplinary dance and performance artist. Her work is shaped by extensive training in dance theatre at the Laban Center in London, where she holds a BA, and the Stockholm University of the Art, where she holds an MA in Performing Arts. Grounded in dance and choreography, Majula's artistic practice explores how the performing arts create spaces for interpersonal relationships, addressing vulnerability and challenging societal norms. Her work offers participants and actors a platform to explore their bodily identities and the political nuances associated with them. Her performances transcend conventional spaces, taking place in art galleries, city streets, abandoned clubs, dark rooms and video installations. Majula also works as dramaturge for dance and performance.
Franck Moka lives and works in Kisangani. His cross-disciplinary practice encompasses sound creation, music, video, film and installation, questioning the relationship between humans and the environment. At once sensitive, critical and provocative, Franck Moka has fun with the details in his creations and doesn't hesitate to use a form of self-mockery to turn subjects that are difficult to tackle into a playful moment of collective questioning. For several years now, he has been composing for the stage, for his sound pieces and for the big screen.
With a degree in Fine Arts from Stockholm University of the Arts, specialising in lighting design, Thabiso Kubheka Persson is a lighting designer motivated by the search for focal points in the narrative that can be highlighted and emphasised by lighting in relation to the set and the performers. Often these focal points revolve around identity, and the task then is to play with and change the individual's relationship to the world, manipulating the space in which the ensemble and the audience share.
In connection with the What is already here project, Thabiso has developed an idea for a sober, precise lighting design that intensifies the performers' movements as much as it allows them to situate themselves in a fictitious space.
