In my view Plato and Africa are not very far from each other.
History, men, have distanced them.
(Soulemayne Mbodj)

In this interview with Gastón Alzate, Souleymane Mbodj discusses several issues relating to the interweaving of performing cultures. These include the unity of literature and the performing arts in Africa; his views on African and Western philosophy; his experience playing Bach’s second prelude in C minor with Lebanese and Armenian musicians; the appropriation processes and cultural fractures resulting from colonization; and the essential value of black music in the Americas for African communities to recover cultural ties shattered by the slave trade. He shares his thoughts on the crossroads and divergences between Africa and the West regarding ways of thinking and conceptions of art. The interview took place in the context of the Kosmopolis International Literature Festival in Barcelona (March 24-26, 2011). Souleymane Mbodj performed alongside Nicolás Buenaventura and Marta Gómez in a show entitled Giving Birth: The Adventure of Thought. The original interview was in French; it was translated into English by Paola Marin.

In 2006 the famous Greek theatre director and founder of the Attis-Theatre (Athens) Theodoros Terzopoulos presented a short performance entitled Jenin (based on the poem of the same name by Etel Adnan). Terzopoulos staged the performance as a parcours that began in an Arabic coffee shop near his theatre and encompased the entire theatre space, including the foyer, the space beneath the seats, the stage itself, the rear exit, etc. The performance could best be described as a kind of silent dealing with the other that remains unincorporated. Drawing upon this experience, we talked about alterity, encounters and the power of the others.

In this interview Professor Brian Singleton gave us upon leaving Berlin and the Centre he complicates terms like Orientalism, Interculturalism and Interweaving. In Ariane Mnouchkine’s performance “Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir” he perceives an ethically conscious Intercultural he generally believes to not have happened yet.

Upon leaving in July 2010 Professor Daryl Chin is giving us an interview about his time and experiences at the Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures from 2009-2010. Therein Daryl shares his perspectives on the development and specificity of art under the conditions of the Modern.

Daryl maintains a cultural blog, Documents on Art & Cinema.

Upon leaving in March 2010 Professor Khalid Amine is giving us an interview about his time and experiences at the Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures from 2008-2010.

Further information on Professor Amine’s work at the International Centre for Performance Studies in Tangier, Morocco, can be found here.