Christiana Tabaro
Christiana Tabaro is an actress and director who lives and works in Kinshasa. She studied at the Institut National des Arts in Kinshasa and is the founder of the Collectif d'Artd'Art with Michael Disanka. She has performed her solo "Parole de femme" (2013-2019) in more than twenty universities in three regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. With Michael Disanka, she has been working since 2016 on a trilogy combining intimacy and history. The first part "Sept Movements Congo" was presented at KVS in Brussels at the end of 2018 with the support of NTGent and Connexion KZW. The second part "Géométrie(s) de vie(s)" - co-produced by studios kabako and supported by Kaserne Basel - will be presented in Marseille at the festival Les rencontres à l'échelle in December 2021. In 2021 she will become a member of the Group50:50.
Elia Rediger
Elia Rediger, founding member of Group50:50, born 1985 in Kinshasa/Democratic Republic of Congo, is a Swiss artist, artistic director, composer, writer and singer. In addition to orchestral compositions ("Oh Albert", 2016, Basel), he was an in-house writer at the Konzerttheater Bern (2016/2017), frontman of the pop group The bianca Story and the big band orchestra Brigade Futur 3. At Deutsche Oper Berlin he directs the music theater format “Macht der Künste / Aus dem Hinterhalt. "Hercules of Lubumbashi - an oratorio of mines" was his second collaboration with the Congolese choreographer Dorine Mokha after the play "Oh Boyoma - 387 verses about a forgotten city" (KonzertTheaterBern 2017). In 2020, Mokha/Rediger founded GROUP50:50 together with the Congolese curator Patrick Mudekereza and the Swiss dramaturge Eva-Maria Bertschy. After Dorine Mokha's sudden death, they decided to continue GROUP50:50's mission and joined forces with Christiana Tabaro and Michael Disanka for a new production.
Eva-Maria Bertschy
Eva-Maria Bertschy, founding member of Group50:50, works as a freelance dramaturg, curator and writer at the intersection of theatre and political activism in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and D.R. Congo. She is the artistic director of Studio Rizoma, a production structure for transnational political and artistic projects in Palermo. With the Swiss director Milo Rau / International Institute of Political Murder, she has conceived and realised numerous productions, international theatre and documentary film projects, political interventions, congresses and other discursive formats. She also works regularly with the Berlin director Ersan Mondtag. She founded GROUP50:50 in 2021 with musician Elia Rediger, Congolese choreographer Dorine Mokha and curator Patrick Mudekereza. Her projects have won numerous awards, been invited to the most important international theatre festivals such as the Berlin Theatertreffen, the Festival d'Avignon and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts and have been shown in more than 20 countries.
Kojack Kossakamvwe
Kojack Kossakamvwe collaborates on a variety of projects with a wide range of artists, whether for album recordings or concerts - such as with Amine AUB (2013) - or as musical director with Papa Wemba for "La passion du maître" (2015). Kojack has played in several bands, including Kwata Vibra (1998), Wenge Musica Maison Mère (2000-2003) and has been on stage for many large-scale musical projects such as the "Losangania Project" (2009), the show "Basali ya buzoba" (2010), "Washibas chantent Michael Jackson" (2011) and has toured with Elie Kamano and Maryse Ngalula for "Visas pour la création" (2013) and "Franco na biso" (2014). Since 2018, he has been touring the world with "Requiem Pour L." together with musicians* from all five continents under the direction of Fabrizio Cassol and Alain Platel. In 2019 and 2020, he was part of the ensemble of "Hercules of Lubumbashi - An Oratorio of Mines".
Michael Disanka
Michael Disanka is an actor, director and writer. After studying at the Institut National des Arts in Kinshasa, he founded the Collectif d'Artd'Art together with Christiana Tabaro. In 2012, he met the Congolese playwright DieudonnéNiangouna and worked with him on theatre productions that were presented at Connexion Kin 2012-2013, Mantsina sur scène 2012 (Brazzaville), and Theaterformen 2013 (Hanover), among others. He has also been working on his own texts for several years, especially in the project "Diseurs de textes", a performance reading project. The texts "31 May 2012" and "La Poupoupète" were staged by DieudonnéNiangouna in 2012. In 2021 he became a member of the Group50:50.
Patrick Mudekereza
Patrick Mudekereza is a writer and curator. He is the founder and artistic director of the Centre d'art Waza, a unique independent art centre in Lubumbashi. He co-founded and directed the first three editions of Rencontres Picha, Biennale de Lubumbashi (2008-2015). He participated in the foundation and sat on the board of the International Biennial Association. He curated exhibitions such as "Prise de Terre" (part of GEOgraphics, Bozar, 2010), "Close Openings/Vernissage Fugaces" (Various venues in Lubumbashi, 2011), "Mining Lubum" (VANSA, Johannesburg, 2015), "Silimuka" (part of the ChinAfrika under construction project, Museum für Gegenwartskunst GfZK Leipzig, 2017), "Aire d'oiseaux imaginaires" (Congo Biennale in Kinshasa, 2019, and Bogardenkapel Brugge, 2019). The project and accompanying publication "Revolution Room" (2013-2016) won the African Architecture Award in the Critical Dialogue category (Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, 2017). In 2016 he received the Congolese National Prize for Art and Culture and in 2017 the Medaille Art Lettre et Sciences. He teaches at the Universities of Lubumbashi and Witwatersrand.
Ruth Kemna
Ruth Kemna studied Viola and Applied Theatre in Hannover, London and Salzburg. She is a violist, performer and theatre maker. Her artistic work deals with contemporary music, the bodies of musicians and instruments and the socially critical roles they can play. She has performed at numerous international festivals such as the Ruhrtriennale, Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus, Davos Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Fusion. She was principal violist of the Hamburger Camerata and had a temporary contract with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, played with Klangforum Wien, Studio MusikFabrik Köln, Orchester im Treppenhaus, Ensemble Modern. As a solo musician and performer she accompanies the biggest gymnastics show in Europe, the Feuerwerk der Turnkunst. In 2020 she was part of the post-colonial mining oratorio "Hercules de Lubumbashi" in DR Congo. She has toured through countries in Europe, South America, China, DR Congo and South Africa. She is currently living in Palermo to develop new performances dealing with the border between the African and European continents in the Mediterranean.
Huguette Tolinga
Huguette Tolinga, self-taught songwriter, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and singer, founder and artistic director of Hugembo Studio, lives in Kinshasa.
She was born in Boende and started her career as a drummer in Kinshasa in a contemporary dance group. In 2009, she formed her own group, Huguembo, with whom she has performed regularly in Congo.
Huguette regularly collaborates with theatre and dance. In 2018, she joined the team of Not Another Diva.... a musical creation of South African Hlengiwe Lushaba and Faustin Linyekula. In addition to creating the music for Anthropos, directed by Carina Riedl, 2022 marks Huguette's participation in the programme Il Ritorno dei Fantasmi in Palermo (May-June), in collaboration with Studio Rizoma and Groupe50:50 and in the Laboratoire Kontempo - Kinzonzi in Berlin (May).
Joseph Kasau
Born in Lubumbashi in 1995, Joseph K. Kasau Wa Mambwe is a visual artist, filmmaker and author based in Lubumbashi. He holds a degree in Information and Communication Sciences from the University of Lubumbashi, specialising in Performing Arts (Audiovisual, Cinema and Theatre). His passion for art started very early in Lubumbashi's cinemas, and was nourished by multiple visual influences that later formalised in his artistic practice, which is situated at the intersection of cinema, video art, photography, creative writing. In his work he adresses the complexity of memory and identity in a postcolonial urban context. He also works as a fixer, assistant director, editorial assistant and communication officer for African and Western structures and collectives.
Franck Moka
Franck Moka lives and works in Kisangani. With his work in sound, music, video, film and installation, he questions the relationship between humans and the environment. He started rapping in the late 90s and became the alter ego of Pasnas, whom he accompanied in the studio and on stage in Congo, Rwanda and Europe.
For several years he has been composing for the stage, for himself and collaborating with other artists such as Dorine Mokha, Elia Rediger, Faustin Linyekula or for the screen with Nelson Makengo. His work - performances, concerts, sound pieces or installations, music, videos, films - has been shown at festivals and exhibitions around the country, mainly in Kisangani and Lubumbashi, where he has often developed them, in Johannesburg (Plat4m), Düsseldorf, Berlin (HAU) and recently in Montreal (Vue d'Afrique), Rotterdam (IFFR) and Dakar (Dakar court). Franck directs the Art'gument Project, an institution dedicated to artistic research and exchange, which he founded with Dorine Mokha.
Dorine Mokha (✝)
Dorine Mokha was born in 1989 in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo and was a dancer, choreographer and author. In addition to his artistic activities, Mokha earned degrees in literature and law. He worked at Studios Kabako, among others, where he dealt with contemporary dance, script and direction. He participated in the festival Theaterformen in Hanover and received a scholarship from the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart in 2014. "Hercules of Lubumbashi" was the second collaboration between Mokha and Rediger after their 2017 play "Oh Boyoma". Dorine Mokha passed away on 8 January 2022 in his hometown of Lubumbashi.