Dear Beloved Friend by Dries Verhoeven & Kininso Koncepts
Travel to Lagos – and bring home a new worldview
DATE: 20, 21, 22 June at 20.00-21.30 – NB! Artist talk after the performance 20 June
PLACE: William Wains Gade 11 – the theatre hall
WHAT: Live film – live performance – live from Lagos and Copenhagen
LANGUAGE: English speech / Danish subtitles
TICKET: Free, just show up
A film performance directly from Lagos leads us into the arms of the potential refugees of the future – the ones we talk so much about in Europe. But are they really coming?
The Dutch performance artist Dries Verhoeven had to drop the idea of an art work about refugee flows. The Nigerians would rather tell what they really think of us Europeans. And bit by bit, they dissolve our Western worldview – and show us that we are all connected.
THE AFRICAN EXODUS
A group of sweaty, shirtless black men come running towards us on a dark, deserted road in Lagos. More and more join. They run and run. They are the image of the imminent African exodus. Soon climate, wars and economic crises will force the Africans towards the north, and in herds they will overflow the borders to Europe.
This is roughly how the future looks if you follow refugee debates in Europe. And this is what it looks like when a Dutch artist sets a bunch of Nigerians to act out our fear scenarios on film. But what does the world look like if we ask the Africans themselves?
The award-winning Dutch performance artist Dries Verhoeven went to Lagos in Nigeria with his prejudices in his backpack to create a performance about the African refugees on the move. But the Nigerians turned it all around. While the problems pile up in one of the world’s fastest growing metropolises, he saw a people bursting with energy and optimism – who think that Europeans’ worries about tomorrow are foolish. They are full of faith in the future of Nigeria.
Are Nigerians fantasizing against better judgment? Or are we Europeans too focused on preserving the past?
“Dear Beloved Friend” is a live film about their prejudices about us and our prejudices about them. About them and us. Dries Verhoeven lets us spy on each other through the camera, and across thousands of kilometres we are suddenly present in the same time and space. Probably closer to each other than we have ever been before.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Dries Verhoeven is one of the most sought after and debated artists on the European performance scene. He is known for taking a stranglehold on taboos through his works. Homosexuality, pedophilia, religion, refugees.
He was most recently in Denmark in 2015, where Metropolis presented ”Ceci n’est pas…”, where every day for 10 days he exhibited a human being in a glass box in the middle of Strøget. A transgender, a pregnant teenager, a child soldier, a praying Muslim, etc. A work that made thousands stop and wonder.
He creates debate wherever he travels with his works, which span performance, visual arts and film. His statements are never unequivocal, but will push the viewer off balance by challenging the prevailing norms. He wants to create change, not stories.
“Dear Beloved Friend” he created together with Nigerian Kininso Koncepts and a film crew from Nollywood, the heart of the African film industry. Kininso Koncepts proved to be as uncompromising as Verhoeven and refused to be portrayed as refugees. Their mission is to tell authentic stories from today’s Africa that challenge the status quo and inspire both locally and globally.
NB! Verhoevens piece ”Happiness” is presented by ILT Festival in Aarhus 15-18 June
PRESS
About Dear Beloved Friend:
Verhoeven is a master at finding the right format for the right subject (…) a feat of technical virtuosity (…) a road trip about people fleeing misery in search of a long-vanished paradise… It is one of his most politically-engaged productions, depicting a mass exodus from one continent and another continent struggling to cope with the influx. – Volkskrant
CREDITS
concept and direction: Dries Verhoeven
creative producer: Joshua Alabi
performance: Ayoola Odubona, Israel Efosa Okpoko, Olorunniyi Zion Praise, Uche Enechukwu, Uche Kingsley Mborogwu, John Zeblon
dramaturgy: Miguel Melgares
directorial assistance: Casper Wortmann, Naomi Steijger
technical staff: Roel Evenhuis, Jeremiah Anthony Irabor, Titus Duitshof, Bolaji Afolabi Rilwan
sound design: Peer Thielen
sound: Adebayo Habib Olaore
light: Biokorogha Tumbra, Anthony Monday
voice over artist: Moshood Fattah
internet technician: Bart van de Woestijne
internet Nigeria: Omotayo Charles Ogunfeibo
video: Adedire Badejo, Blessing Olalekan Okunola, Abiola Semiu Peter, Samuel Abaji
set: Athanasius Akojuru
media runner: Ebenezer Obiji
welfare: Olubanke Oyeniyi
drivers: Dare Oshoniyi, Adekunle Adesanya
executive production: ‘n More – Lise van den Hout & Ellen van Bunnik & Kininso Koncepts – Angela Peters & Emmanuel Anya
production: Studio Dries Verhoeven & Kininso Koncepts
office Kininso Koncepts: admin manager Chinenye Chukwudi, assistant admin manager Oloyede Aribilola, communications Aniefiok Inyang, legal representative: Praise Alabi
trailer: Thorsten Alofs
Dear beloved friend, is made possible by the Performing Arts Fund NL, Gemeente Utrecht, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Dioraphte, Creative Industries Fund NL, Fonds 2, In Situ/Creative Europe and the Dutch embassy in Nigeria.
Photo: Willem Popelier