De là à là (From Here to There)

What happens when a body crosses a border?

In De là à là, two performers move in opposite directions: Martina Gunkel, a white woman from Germany, travels from Europe to Africa; Sanga Ouattara, a Black man from Côte d'Ivoire, takes the reverse route. Their movements mirror each other - drawn from the experiences each had upon arriving on the other continent. Yet the conditions under which they move and are perceived are profoundly unequal.

Their bodies carry more than passports and personal belongings: memory, traces of history, inherited rhythms, lived experience. They are living archives, shaped by what precedes them and by the spaces they enter. Territory here is not only geographic - it is inscribed in the body itself.

The performance lays bare the asymmetry of mobility and migration. Movement from North to South is often read as openness or expertise; the journey from South to North is frequently marked by restriction, suspicion, and systemic barriers - a continuation of colonial continuities. Through choreography, presence, and confrontation, the artists examine how identity forms under these conditions: what do we carry within us, and what is projected onto us from outside?

De là à là does not resolve these tensions but holds them in shared presence. The work asks how bodies unequally positioned within migration systems can meet on a human and sensory level - and what forms of connection become possible beyond these divides.

Duration: 45 minutes

Concept, choreography, performance: Martina Gunkel, Sanga Ouattara
Music: Charles Ouitin
Light design: Underdome Music