The Unreliable Archives

The Unreliable Archives are offline material archives full of unreliable (collective) memories. This artistic practice in development currently takes the form of an installation-performance. In the archives you will encounter polyphonic sound stories based on interviews with family members and people from post- Apartheid South Africa in combination with insights from colonial histories, biology and geology. You will find cairns of stones, stories, maps and moss in geological layers in every corner of the space.

© Katrijn Baeten
© Katrijn Baeten

Rona Kennedy is researching how to invite an audience to encounter the material in the Archives viscerally, through the senses. The intention is to explore questions like: whose body remembers and how does forgetting function? Who is not listening and why? Could we do this by getting our hands dirty and having new (material) conversations? Reading (aloud) fragments of decomposing conversations? Examining and re-composing our own unreliable memories? How can we compost colonial histories, put down roots and find home?

Maker: Rona Kennedy — In artistic dialogue with: Dramaturge & Coach: Kopano Morago — Scenography: Saskia Louwaard & Katrijn Baeten — Sound design and Polyphony: Hans Roels — Dialogue Partners: Enrica Camporesi, Charlotte Peys & Duraid Abbas Ghaieb — Performance: Célia Fechas — With thanks to: Inez Louwagie, Maria Huhmarniemi, Helena Elshout, Fabian Espinosa Diaz, Goedele Louwagie, Dave Butterworth, Sophie De Somere, Bart van den Eynde, Sanne Van Rijn, Marika Ingels, Inge Van Reeth, Barbara Raes, Elly Van Eeghem, & Jane Breeds — With thanks to everyone I interviewed: Audrey, Bongile, Carol, Célia, Elizabeth, Elmi, Ethne and family, Guy, Hans, Katie, Maria, Mickie, Rachel, Rika, Sheila, Simphiwe, Tine, Virginia, William & Zaide — Supported within the framework of the post-experience Masters in Theatre (Directing and Scenography) at Maastricht institute for Performativity, by Mestizo Arts Platform, Rataplan, CAMPO, Voo?uit and workspacebrussels and with a short-term development grant from The Flemish Arts Council.

Artist

Residencies

31.10.2022 - 15.11.2022

workspacebrussels

20.09.2021 - 01.10.2021

Kaaistudio's