De là à là (Von hier nach da)

Martina Gunkel, a white woman from Germany, travels from Europe to Africa, while Sanga Ouattara, a Black man from the Ivory Coast, takes the opposite route. Their movements mirror one another—and are based on the experiences each had upon arriving on the other’s continent. Yet the conditions under which they move and are perceived are profoundly unequal.

They carry more than just passports and personal belongings. Their bodies carry memory: traces of history, inherited rhythms, and lived experience. They are living archives—shaped by what precedes them and by the spaces they enter. Here, territory is inscribed not only geographically but also within the body.

The performance exposes the asymmetry of mobility and migration. While movements from north to south are often interpreted as openness or expertise, the journey from south to north is frequently marked by restriction, mistrust, and systemic barriers—as a continuation of colonial legacies.

Through choreography, presence, and confrontation, the artists explore how identity emerges under these conditions. What do we carry within us, and what is attributed to us from the outside? How does a place change a person?

De là à là does not resolve these tensions but holds them in a shared presence. The work asks how bodies, which are unequally positioned within migration systems, can nevertheless find common ground on a human and sensory level—and what forms of relationship become possible beyond these divisions.