Location: DRC
Date: 2021
Programme: Play
Client: Post-Novis
Status: N/A
Area: N/A
Budget: N/A
Team: Traumnovelle (architects)
Act 1
The space is referred to as the heart of darkness. Its boundaries are fluid. It is as big as western Europe. It is a median space; never too hot,never too cold. It is sometimes flat and sometimes hilly. It is a jungle, it is a shore, it is a grassland, it is a swamp.
Act 2
The bodies turn in circles, digging the ground looking for stone that could be transformed into copper. The bodies are old, young, males and females. Through a process as old as human history, they heat the stone in order to shape it. The copper cross can then be exchanged among bodies. One cross, one wife, one cross, one tribe, one cross, one goat,
one cross, one friend. The bodies are in perpetual movement, moving from north to south, from east to west.
Act 3
Bodies from all over the world gather on the shores. There are two kinds of characters,
exploiters and exploited. The cast is fixed but someone who is exploited can in turn exploit
someone else. Some bodies are small, some are fat, some are white, some are black. The
spectator can hear the rush of the deepest river in the world in the background.
Act 4
The jungle is overwhelming. All around, the spectator can hear animals breathing, can smell
trees growing. The bodies are running, trying to escape from other bodies. Bare feet show
the marks of the forest. Skins are living memories. A landscape of lashes, a landscape of
pain inflicted by other bodies or by themselves.
Act 5
Ivory is a strong material. White and opaque, it is used to produce common objects such as billiard bowls, piano keys, buttons, cutlery, book covers. The classical music that we praise, from Bach to Mozart, was made from the dead bodies of elephants born in the darkness.
The landscape is scarred by elephants running in despair to escape their hunters. The spectator can smell the hot blood seeping into the earth.
Act 6
From a far distance, orders are given by white bodies to black bodies to climb on trees to harvest rubber. Bodies don’t trade anymore, they can only obey. Bodies are killed, hands are cut. There is no light anymore, it is the darkest time of the darkest heart of darkness. The
violence of the cries crosses boundaries and continents.
Act 7
White bodies are gathered around a shining stone. It is a stone made of compressed carbon. Their faces are illuminated by the light coming from the stone. They are all dressed in white. The air is dry. The ground is red.
Act 8
Black bodies are digging the earth. What used to be underground is now above ground. A landscape of artificial mountains and artificial caves and lakes. The bodies are often quite small. The bodies are exhausted. Their actions are constrained to the repetition of a simple
act: dig the earth with a shovel, sort, discard, repeat. There are no trees anymore that can provide any escape from the harsh sun that licks their wounds.
Act 9
A chant is heard in a high-pitched chant: “One, two, three / Inna di mornin’ / Early in the morning / Ah wha dem ah seh right yah now? / Hahaha / When di love ah set / Early in the morning”. Some
bodies chant, some bodies observe.
Act 10
The space is crossed by a series of railroads that connect the zone to the international territory. The interiors are divided by class. The one for the white bodies is decorated with tropical wood and Orientalist paintings. The one for the black bodies and goods is sparse
and uncomfortable.
Act 11
The fire storm that annihilated Hiroshima began its course in the heart of darkness. This fire was made possible thanks to a glowing stone, uranium. Fearless the bodies continue to dance, they praise the Almighty. New churches are erected on the ashes of old kingdoms.
Act 12
The savannah is the scene of a battle that opposes bodies that don’t know exactly what theyfight for. The river is thick and red.
Act 13
A new class trained overseas rises. The bodies stand strongly. Their looks are proud. The land is already scarred but for you they trade it to a new form of culture. At the back of the stage, the spectator can see the Horizon.
Act 14
The horizon is replaced by a mountain of waste. Iron, Diamonds, Phosphate, Coal, Cobalt, Potash, Gold. Daily life is rhythmed by the shifting value of minerals. It is said that every time
that the overseas world was in need of a material, they managed to uncover it in abundance
deep within the dark territory.
Act 15
On a street corner, the factory workers dance until dawn on a rumba rhythm. The
atmosphere is electric. The sounds are repetitive. It is a polyphony, music composed of different melodic lines that work together. The joyful bodies are dazzled but their movement keeps the machine working.
Act 16
The Rumble in the Jungle. George Foreman opposes Muhammad Ali in a Historical fight.
Act 17
People against cars, Cousin against Cousin, Brother against Brother a fight started with no
arbitrator to count the points.
Act 18
Everyone is looking for something to trade. Cities are growing, the countryside is forgotten. In a land where everything grows, bodies are starved.
Act 19
Even when you hit rock bottom, you can still dig deeper.
Act 20
It is said that every time that the overseas world was in need of a material they managed to discover it in abundance deep within the dark territory. At the back of the stage, the spectator can see the Horizon disappearing.
