SPAFRICA

SPAfrica is a performance about empathy and extractivism. A project that explores how capitalism is connected to racism.

Julian Hetzel and Ntando Cele join forces to explore the limits of empathy – the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing.  SPAfrica reveals the problematic mechanisms and hidden racism hidden beneath empathy. SPAfrica introduces a two-fold gesture about extracting ‘liquid empathy’ and builds upon the transaction of resources between Europe and Africa – water for tears and tears for water. On the one hand, drinking water from the sub-Saharan regions is imported into Europe: SPAfrica – the world’s first ’empathy drink’. The project juxtaposes the exploitation of natural and emotional resources, exposing neoliberal strategies in the search for alternative raw materials.

In their new creation, Hetzel and Cele question how intangible assets such as identity and cultural background are capitalised on. In the international art market, the cultural background and the identity of the protagonists have become valuable resources for value creation. Is trauma the new gold of the arts?

 
Premiered – 11 May 2023
 
CONCEPT
Julian Hetzel and Ntando Cele
DIRECTION 
Julian Hetzel
PERFORMANCE 
Ntando Cele
DRAMATURGY 
Miguel Angel Melgares
ARTISTIC ADVISOR
Sodja Lotker, Khanyisile Mbongwa
MUSIC & COMPOSITION
Frank Wienk
LIGHT DESIGN 
Nico de Rooij
TECHNICAL COORDINATION 
Vincent Beune, Aengus Havinga
(previously: Cesco van der Zwaag, Martijn van Nunen, Bea Verbeek)
TECHNICIANS
Tom Doeven
Simon Kelaita
Bea Verbeek
Wout Jansen
TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
Merijn Versnel
Guido Bevers
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR 
Marieke van den Bosch
PRODUCTION CAPE TOWN
Lungile Mbongwa
GALERIST CAPE TOWN
Mpilo Ngcukana
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Jana Riese
ASSISTANT COSTIME DESIGNER
Merel van Erpers Roijaards
MASK ARTIST 
Carly Heathcote
MAKE-UP ARTIST
Julia Markow
PROP MAKER
Saskia Hartog
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION 
Reynold Reynolds
Bongeka Ngcobo
PHOTOGRAPHY
Alexandra Masmanidi
Anouk Maupu
PRODUCED BY
Studio Julian Hetzel
CO-PRODUCED BY
Schauspiel Leipzig (DE) 
CAMPO Gent (BE) 
Theatre Vidy-Lausanne (CH) 
SPRING Performing Arts Festival Utrecht (NL) 
Auawirleben, Bern (CH)
PHOTOGRAPHY
Alexandra Masmanidi
Date:

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