12 09 12 Europe’s Footprints (July 29th – September 29th 2012)

 

On September 29^th 2012,
the Théâtre de Poche in Brussels will welcome
the arrival of John Mpaliza Balagizi, 40 years old, an exile of the
Congolese diaspora, who lives in Italy since 18 years.

On 29 July 2012, John left his work in Reggio
Emilia and started to walk. He crossed the Alps and walked through Switzerland
and France, and then Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, always on
foot, under the sun, the rain, camping wherever he can, he will go on walking up to forty
miles a day until he comes to Brussels. Sixteen hundred kilometers, what’s
needed to reach the European Parliament, try to be received and listened. In
front of the European Parliament, John will be the mouthpiece of thousands of
testimonies of the chain of violence that made six million dead in the
1998-2003 conflict and continue to tear his country, the Democratic Republic of
Congo.

With him, the
artists of the Company Teatro dell’Argine from Bologna who, in their theater, the ITC
Teatro in San Lazzaro di Savena, work to create a multicultural theatre with
shows involving professional and non-professional artists coming from 15-20
different countries in the world, as migrants or political refugees. «As
Europeans, as artists, as theater people working for many years with political
refugees, many of whom fled Congo,
we felt we had to respond to John’s gesture. Too many are the echoes that our
history, our culture, our memory let resonate within us. His act is exemplar,
paradoxical, hyperbolical», say the artists of Teatro dell’Argine, who decided
to support John’s march and to invite European artists and intellectuals
to walk with him and to think of the road as of a giant canvas on which they
can paint, write, sculpt, play and make art installations. «A 1600 km long theatre,
within which those who will walk with us will listen Congolese stories
dialoguing with European memories, African writers interacting with European
writers, Aimé Césaire being read together with Joseph Conrad, and Frantz Fanon
with Aeschylus».

Along the way, in Milan, Turin, Grenoble,
Geneva, Neuchâtel, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Maastricht, but also in smaller
cities and towns, wonderful things have happened: very important theaters (such
as the Am Stram Gram in Geneva or the Théâtre du Passage in Neuchâtel) opened
their doors to the stories and performances of the marchers, many artists
contributed with readings, interviews, installations (Eugenio Allegri, Ascanio
Celestini, Marco Baliani, Ruben Pansa), many institutions (such as the
Senate of the Italian Republic, four provinces, three municipalities, two
European universities and festivals, Arci Bologna and Milan) gave their patronage,
many people opened their homes and their pantries to give the travelers
rest, food and drinks. Finally, an institution as the UNHCR (United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees) welcomed and listened to the marchers in
Geneva; and today, September 11^th,
the European Parliament in Strasbourg
has received them and promised concrete measures to help the cause of the
Congolese people  (see the full list of
supporters below).

 

The grand final will be in
Brussels when John
will be received by other European institutions and the Company Teatro
dell’Argine will lead a workshop at the Théâtre de Poche (September 22^nd
to 29^th); the workshop will be open to all local artists – actors,
musicians, dancers, visual artists – who wish to participate, but also to young
people, refugees, non-professional (interview required).

On September 29^th, the
workshop will give life to the show Walking Shadows. Congolese and Artists
Across Europe, an itinerant event at the Théâtre de Poche which will put the audience on
the move as well through different texts, original productions of artists,
photos and videos created starting from the suggestions of the march.

 

To follow, the complete list of
supporters and contacts (website, Facebook, Twitter) E

The march has the patronage of the
Senate of the Italian
Republic 

 

Europe’s Footprints is a project in collaboration
with:

Foundation StrefaWolnoslowa (Poland)

Dynamique
de la Diaspora
Congolaise en Emilia-Romagna (Italy)

and the newspaper "Il
Corriere della Sera" (Italy,
publishing the blog of the march)

 

 

with support of:

Rome, Bologna, Reggio Emilia and Pisa Provinces (Italy)

Reggio Emilia, La Spezia
and Albinea Municipalities
(Italy)

Department of Political Geography of Zurich
University (Switzerland)

Department of Education Sciences of Bologna
University (Italy)

ARCI Bologna and Milan (Italy)

Committee Azione RD
Congo (Italy)

European Alternatives

Transeuropa Festival

Human Rights Nights Film Festival

National Archive of Diaries in Pieve Santo Stefano (Italy)

Centre Bruxellois d’Action Interculturelle (Belgium)

Kuumba Maison Africaine-Flamande (Belgium)

Théâtre Am Stram Gram (Switzerland)

Théâtre du Passage (Switzerland)

Théâtre de Poche (Belgium)

Vluchtelingenwerk Maastricht (Holland)

 

 

and of the following artists and intellectuals: 

Marco Baliani (actor, director and author)

Ascanio Celestini (actor, director and author)

Eugenio Allegri (actor and director)

Ulderico Pesce (actor, director and author)

Fanny & Alexander (artists)

Matéi Visniec (playwright)

Ruben Pansa (visual artist)

Elisabetta Pozzi (actress)

Alessandra Belledi (director Teatro delle Briciole in Parma, Italy)

Letizia Quintavalla (director)

Association Olinda/Ex Ospedale Psichiatrico Paolo Pini in
Milan (Italy)

Gerardo Guccini (Bologna University, Italy)

Federica Zanetti (Bologna University, Italy)

Massimo Marino (journalist)

Marianella Sclavi (anthropologist)

Roberto Beneduce (ethnopsychiatrist)

Paolo Jedlowski (sociologist)

Ivo Quaranta (anthropologist)