KADDU YARAAX – Public Talk on 17 May 2023, 7 p.m.

A public talk with Mamadou Diol and Leity Kane of the Forum Theater Kaddu Yaraax from Dakar/Senegal about spatial and social dimensions of theatrical interventionist practices and new forms of social impact.

The KADDU YARAAX group from Dakar operates at the interface between theater, city and society. Their plays in urban space are aimed at changing social processes, intervening in political debates and producing publics. Their scenic interventions engage in conflicts over urban spaces and colonial continuities and address crises such as environmental pollution and social inequality. KADDU YARAAX inquires into the memories, life experiences and perceptions of the city’s inhabitants and develops potential actions from the different perspectives of the actors involved. A future social city will not be postponed, but will emerge in the process of performative action itself – as a »real utopia« in the present.

The public talk deals with the possibilities and limits of theatrical interventions in the experimental reclamation of the city, the public sphere and representation. How can the play forms develop a dynamic, through which they not only represent but also produce social cohesion and urban change? How do they resist political appropriations and social institutionalizations that threaten their subversive potential? What practices of self-problematization do they pursue? What role do they play in an ethical culture of memory?

Public Talk with Mamadou Diol and Leity Kane (German/French):
Wed, 17 May 2023, 7 p.m., Room 240 -> ground plan
followed by food & drinks

Moderated by
Simon Meienberg

Translated by
Lara Gonnot

The talk is part of the curatorial project »The Entire Story Starts Where –Connections and Exclusions of Translocal Positions« of the German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Training Group (RTG) »connecting – excluding: Cultural Dynamics Beyond Globalized Networks«. The RTG is a collaborative venture between the University of Cologne, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and TH Köln, University of Technology, Arts, Sciences.

From May 15 to 19, 2023, a workshop with Mamadou Diol and Leity Kane (KADDU YARAAX) will take place at the KISD of TH Köln (daily 10:00 am to 4:00 pm). From June 15 to July 1, 2023, KADDU YARAAX will exhibit their work Colliding Circulations at GASMOOG –Space for Contemporary Art & its Discourse (curated by Simon Meineberg, supported by Julian Hoffmann and Prof. Dr. Carolin Höfler, Design Theory and Research).