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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Bea Borgers
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© Sarah Vanhee
Mémé
Sarah Vanhee / CAMPO
Mémé is a solo performance by Sarah Vanhee, with guest appearances by puppets, ghosts and a child. An intergenerational, multi-layered and plurilingual work about the relationship to the ancestors, to the (native) soil and to the female body, starring the spirits of Vanhee's West Flemish grandmothers who – like many women of that time – spent most of their lives ‘laboring’, in the two senses of the word: bearing and raising children; and working in the home and ‘on the land’ – always in service of others.
How does today’s world relate to those forgotten women of the past, and to the earth they cultivated? And how do we see them reflected in the forgotten women of today, whose labor and labor are still being exploited?
It is an ode to those ‘invisibilized’ women, to the earth, to life itself, both emotional and intellectual, to work and pleasure. Mémé is a ritual attempt by Vanhee to bring her grandmothers back to life, re-connect, repair, and then – differently – say goodbye again, in a time without boundaries.
Mémé premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels.
In Dutch, West Flemish & English, with Dutch & English subtitles
+- 90 minutes
Extra information: use of smoke on scene
press
Mémé restores grandmothers to their rightful place, something they never got in their lifetime.
An intimate and touching play.
The deep relationship I have with my son, my grandparents never had with their children
Mémé connects with ancestors across decades and generations. In this ode to their strength and to their existence, Vanhee gives the grandmothers the attention and love they had to lack during their lives.
Vanhee takes on the role of a mediumistic storyteller linking the past and the present through suggestive, fetish-like materiality and playful, home-made rituals of repossession.
The performance gradually expands into pure, benevolent emotion, with a touch of good-natured humour.
Going beyond biography, her approach articulates intimacy and history in a gesture that is both meticulous and far-reaching.
Mémé is personal, tender and funny and has an almost cathartic ending.
Mémé is a rich reflection that will be recognisable to many families.
Mémé' is a heartfelt ode to Sarah Vanhee's late grandmothers.
The piece is an ode, a thank-you to my grandmothers
the comeback of the grandmothers
Mémé is a celebration of our lives being intimately connected to the land from which we come. I come from a family where a sense of work and duty is central; even the name of my maternal grandmother’s village, Werken, means ‘work’.
credits
concept, text & performance Sarah Vanhee objects & scenography Toztli Abril de Dios sound Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti outside eye Christine De Smedt lightdesign Babette Poncelet technique Geeraard Respeel & Babette Poncelet performance on screen Leander Polzer Vanhee with the precious input of family Vanhee-Deseure dedicated to Margaretha Ghyselen & Denise Desaever production CAMPO co-production Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Kaaitheater (Brussels), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), BUDA (Kortrijk), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), De Grote Post (Oostende), Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Festival d’Automne à Paris & Perpodium with the support of the taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government via uFund residencies KWP Kunstenwerkplaats (Brussels), Kaaitheater (Brussels) & BUDA (Kortrijk)