The hip-hop dance theater commemorates the colonial soldiers who had to fight under French command in the First and Second World Wars.
With hip-hop tracks, poetic texts, and breakdance set against a backdrop of historical photographs and film clips, this contemporary performance commemorates the millions of colonial soldiers who fought on the front lines for France during World War I (1914–1918) and contributed to the liberation of Europe from fascism in World War II.
Now largely forgotten, the Compagnie Mémoires Vives from the Strasbourg banlieus brings an important but suppressed chapter of history to the stage in a contemporary form. In addition to breakdancing and graffiti, there are videos with archive footage and statements by contemporary witnesses on a large screen as well as live singing. The Compagnie Mémoires Vives first developed the piece in 2007 with young people from the banlieues of Strasbourg, whose fathers and grandfathers had fought as colonial soldiers in Alsace and remained there after the end of the war.
The performances accompanied the travelling exhibition The Third World in the Second World War, with shows in Berlin (2009), Cologne (2010), Freiburg and Lucerne (2011), and Frankfurt (2013). Almost all per-formances sold out, leaving audiences deeply moved and energized. In Cologne, for example, more than 300 schoolchildren attended and participated in animated discussions with the performers following the show.
For its presentation in May 2025, the play was revived with actors from North and West Africa as well as France. These performances were a spectacular highlight, marking the conclusion of the long-term project The Third World in the Second World War—and at the same time, serving as a powerful prologue to africologneFESTIVAL 2025.
WITH Compagnie Mémoires Vives (Strasbourg) DIRECTOR Yan Gilg IN COOPERATION WITH africologneFESTIVAL; Afrika Film Festival Köln / FilmInitiativ Köln e.V.; Friedensbildungswerk Köln; jfc – Medienzentrum (Cologne); Eine Welt Netz NRW; Bürgerzentrum Nippes – Altenberger Hof.
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CONTEXT THE THIRD WORLD IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
À nos morts is part of the programme accompanying the exhibition The Third World in the Second World War. At the end of the overall project, the original exhibition will be shown once again in an updated and expanded version from 8th March to 1st June 2025 at the Cologne Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe (on 8th May 2025). It has been supplemented with (local) historical facts that were added in other exhibition cities and countries. Artistic reflections from Africa, Asia and Oceania on the consequences of the Second World War will also be presented in the basement vault of the NS-DOK.
The extensive accompanying programme, featuring international guests from Egypt, Algeria, France, Italy, Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil, Korea, Malaysia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the USA, was developed in coopera-tion with local and national initiatives and offers more than 30 events. These include lectures, readings, theatre performances, a film series, live music, and a hip-hop dance performance by Compagnie Mémoires Vives.
CONCEPT AND REALIZATION Christa Aretz & Karl Rössel (Recherche International e.V., Cologne)