BEGA KWA BEGA

BEGA KWA BEGA

ph. Ivana Di Salvo

Ivana Di Salvo Artistic direction, Mise en scene, Dramaturgy and Text

Aloyce Makonde Choreography and movements (Dar es Salaam, TZ)

Cilio Minella Performance and movement research / Sound research 

Tadhi Alawi – Performance and movement research                         

Kihako Narisawa (Association Several Waves) – Artistic consultancy, project management and outside eye

 

External Advisors & Experts

Pascale Altenburger  (Baba) – Outside Eye (CH)

Nadia Beugré – Outside Eye (CI / BF)

 

Thanks for the support to KASKO, CCHAR, ROXY Birsfelden, Fachausschuss Darstellende Künste BS/BL, Migros Ideation, artlink Südkulturfonds and Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung.

Bega kwa bega is a dance and sound project about a colonial product: chocolate—a symbol with which an entire country, Switzerland, identifies. It is made from cocoa that was historically imported from countries colonized by Europe (including Tanzania). But what is the real connection between Switzerland and Tanzania? Through physical movement, an immersive soundscape, and music, the performance focuses on the contemporary contradictions that resonate in every bite: childhood memories, dieting, images of masculinity and power relations, and ambivalent desires. Chocolate touches the collective memory and deeper layers of the psyche. It contains substances that enhance attention, mood, euphoria, and well-being. It is part of moral mechanisms of consumption such as the desire–guilt and reward systems that reinforce positive behavior and the pursuit of pleasure. This project also explores how an intercultural and transgeographical collaboration between artists from the Global North and South can be further developed. The inspiration for the project arose during a visit to the Silos in Basel—a site that once housed a warehouse where cocoa beans were stored until 1921, serving as a stopover in the cocoa trade between Rotterdam and Switzerland. The performance is developed and presented in urban spaces that resonate with postcolonial themes, in order to address these topics in an accessible way and reach a broader audience that does not usually attend the theater. However, the same performance can also take place in a traditional theater space if it is not possible to find a suitable urban location.

The first phase of ideation and research will take place between February and May 2026 with the following partnerships:

  • CCHAR (La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH)
  • KASKO (Basel, CH)
  • ROXY (Birsfelden, CH)

BEGA KWA BEGA – thanks for the support to

MAWAZO

MAWAZO

ph. Ivana Di Salvo

THE PROJECT

Text and direction: Mbene Mwambene and Ivana Di Salvo
With (in alphabetical order): Ivana Di Salvo, Aloyce M. Makonde, Lulu G. Kayage, Mbene M. Mwambene, 
Outside eye: Ntando Cele
Light: Tobias Voegelin
Production: Catalina Schriber, Astragalo theatercompagnie
In co-production with Schlachthaus Theater Bern, Theater ROXY Birsfelden and Schwankhalle Bremen
Set and costume design: Renate Wünsch
Supported by: Fachausschuss BS / BL, Kanton Bern, Kultur Stadt Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung, SüdKulturFonds, Oertli Stiftung, Bürgi-Willert Stiftung, Teatro Foce, Schaubühne Lindenfels
Original text in English, Kiswahili, Italian and Ichibemba
Mawazo is a Kiswahili word which means thoughts, heavy thoughts that tire us but also light thoughts that lift us up. It can be the engine that makes us exhibit, produce, run, react, question, be and exist. The team living in Tanzania and Switzerland questions their own biographies about what it means to grow up in a globalized world. What hopes do they share? What fears? Is capitalism a universal phenomenon or has it cleverly adapted to the diversity of political and cultural systems?
In shared artistic space, they search for connection with each other and with the audience – beyond cultural and geographical origins.

Mawazo – the trailer

Mawazo – performers

Mawazo – thanks for the support to

DERIVA

DERIVA

Written and directed by Ivana Di Salvo

with Ivana Di Salvo, Ursina Natalia Früh, Dominique Lüdi and Tassos Tataroglou

Choreography Ursina Natalia Früh

Music Tassos Tataroglou

Translation Luciana Valenza and Jacopo G. Nicoletti

Set Photography Luciano Perciaccante and Daniele Camminiti

Produced by Astragalo, Theater Palazzo

Supported by Abteilung Kultur Basel-Stadt,  Kanton Basel-Landschaft Bildungs-, Kultur- und Sportdirektion, Ernst göhner Stiftung, Migros Kultur Prozent (Basel und Zurich), Oertli Stiftung, BLKB- Jubiläumstiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung |  In collaboration with Istituto di Cultura Italiana (Zurich) and Martina Langmann

ASTRAGALO the company

Teulada eagerly wishes a child. Sulcis works in an industry, in the middle of the countryside, among the olive trees. Isolated from the barbed wire that keeps her away from real life. After the shift with her hands stained with explosives, she goes to her flat, walking among ghost ruins of the mining archeology, in which she has no other escape than the creation of objects of death. Anna is a receptionist in a call center, with her headphones on her head she listens to the voices of the people.They are all part of the same family, a family where is strong the sense of eradication for who left, but also for who is staying.

These characters never existed, perhaps they exist. They are like cargo, containers of emotions, of potential lives and desires. Of commodified bodies. They clash, they approach each other, without ever really getting close. Nevertheless they keep each other company. The work on the characters (attention not the text itself!) will be inspired by ”Pedro Paramo” by J. Rulfo in which the characters are a symbol of a coexistence of past and present, of illusion of encounters in eternal and circular time. A crossing throughout bodies and lives.

The restlessness of the main characters, stimulated by the trumpet’s evocative music is an attempt to break out of the conformism that binds them. They search for a meaning in their lives and in doing so to rediscover themselves. This search is both physical as well as profoundly intimate. In addition to family dynamics, it is a story of solitude, in search for the possibility of redemption.

During the research process, Ivana Di Salvo investigated the Sulcis Iglesiente area in Sardinia and conducted interviews with citizens of this area.  Italy is still actively involved in the weapon trade, even with countries which are at war.  People see themselves forced to embrace the work in these industries there are few other job opportunities. This is not just happening in Sardinia, but all over Europe, even in countries where there could be other job opportunities.

The text by Ivana Di Salvo, is written in Italian and German, two of Switzerland’s official languages. The character of Sulcis speaks Italian, while Teulada and Anna speak German, using only some words or sentences in Italian, as a reminiscence of their past. This aims to encourage a flexibility, offering different perspectives on the story, as well as deepen the empathy for the characters and their vicissitudes. The two languages are used also to investigate incommunicability, distance between people from the same family, and to offer a different perception to the audience: how difficult is to talk when you do not speak the language, how the gesture can change.

Tassos Tataroglou for Deriva is composing sound diaries as an explorative self-portrait. The stile is minimal, the melody and phrasing measured, delicate but deep and penetrating, through the vocabulary of blue notes, microtones, polyrhythms and extended harmonies of jazz and the dissenting tones of the electronic music.

SUPPORT US

PC-Konto/Postal account
53975373

IBAN
CH560 9000 0001 5090 0098

BIC
POFICHBEXXX

 

Thanks for your support!