WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE RIVER? - Ligna & Avant Scène

Walking through your own city with a map of a foreign city to explore the urban space in a new way: The "Yaoundé-Mülheim Walk" is a walk that links Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, and Mülheim an der Ruhr. Connected via video telephony, we move simultaneously in two groups on two continents through the two cities.

The stories and images of places, streets and situations are similar and different. Foreignness and familiarity begin to blur when the Ruhr overlaps with the Mfoundi River, the railroad tracks of the Ruhr area and its history in the context of the Ruhr industry come into contact with the problematic trade in goods at the train stations and other trade hubs in Yaoundé. The colonial history, largely forgotten in Germany, is only one aspect of this. The continued exploitation of resources, the climate crisis and the prevention of immigration come into view as the politics of urban space.

During the walk, a common, shared experience is created: about global interdependencies, about power and memory - and about how the city becomes legible as an expression of social conditions.

LIGNA consists of the media and performance artists Ole Frahm, Michael Hueners and Torsten Michaelsen. In shows, urban interventions and performative installations, they have been exploring the possibilities of collective action since 2002.

Avant Scène sees itself as a pluralistic laboratory that is committed to the democratization of culture and the creation of new forms of coexistence in Yaoundé. "What has happened to the river" is the third collaboration between the two groups.

A production by LIGNA and Avant Scène