Martha Canga Antonio

Martha Canga Antonio (BE, 1995) is an actress, maker, performer and musician. Her work, free from disciplinary boundaries, stems from personal reflections rooted in her experience of being in the world. These reflections gradually take form — whether through music, film or performance. What ties her artistic projects together is the attempt to open doors to inner spaces, to externalise them, and to allow others to enter.

As an actress, she appeared on screen in Black by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (2015), Eva Cools’ Cleo (2019), Roomies(2023) on VRT, and the French Netflix series Lupin (2023). In 2015, she won the Best Actress award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and received an Ensor. In 2016, she was nominated as a Shooting Star at the Berlinale. On stage, she collaborated with Arsenaal/Lazarus for the production De wereld redden (2018).

She also works as a musician under the name Martha Da’ro. Her EP Cheap Wine & Paris, which marked her emergence on the national scene, was released in 2020. This year, she released her first full-length album Philophobia, which confirmed her breakthrough and brought her to international stages such as Ancienne Belgique, Rock en Seine (FR), and MENT Festival (SL). Concerts at VIERNULVIER and Bozar are scheduled for the winter.

Her first transdisciplinary work was created in the context of the Customs & Borders programme at Decoratelier in 2021. Melancholia was a replica of her bedroom, filled with sketches and diaries, leading into a second space: a mini-labyrinth whose endpoint featured a video of herself speaking about her fears — for those who felt at ease enough to make it all the way through.

In many ways, Melancholia was a precursor to Holy. Today, she seeks to bring together her diverse practices — which have always been connected for her, yet until now took place in separate circuits, on different stages and for different audiences. To do so, she combines her experience in shaping music and concerts with her work as an actress. In this way, she positions herself as an interdisciplinary maker who creates fully fledged projects. Holy marks a crucial step in that journey.