LONDINIUM | Elisabeth Woronoff

A reflection on dissolutions of communities and destruction of spaces. A weave of languages speaking of different ruptures, all aiming to imagine a multiplicity of possible reconstructions: “Hopes for a Future Space”.

The grief of the mother, the grief of a building, a community, an island. It traces the waters that connect these dissolutions and explores how their fractures merge. Today I conceive LONDINIUM as an evolving performance that will each time become part of the place and the human fabric of the place where it will be presented.

LONDINIUM is a tribute to London and the river Thames which flushes the city’s slag in and out with the tide.
Demian Vitanza

LONDINIUM teaser

Plan of Evacuation / Plan d’Evacuation / Evacuatie Plan. A performative guided tour through the B2 corridor of Studio Citygate where I used to have my atelier between July 2019 and July 2022. An in-situ art piece mixing performance art, theatre ("Londinium" by Demian Vitanza), installation, painting and video-documentary materials I collected in the UK in 2020 ; as well as audio interviews of the residents of this corridor in 2022.

This building that used to be the pharmaceutical factory Vesdre Continental was bought by CityDev in 2015. It is run by SPRL Entrakt. It is an alternative artistic hub under a tenancy-at-will lease, a precarious temporary third space that will be destroyed and is awaiting permits to be transformed into a real estate project in 2023.

“LONDINIUM is a tribute to London and the river Thames which flushes the city’s slag in and out with the tide.” Demian Vitanza

The river Thames in London echoes the Canal in Brussels. What is the waste of our metropolis, what is destroyed and thrown into the water?

The Londinium play talks about grief, the part we are using is "Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song": three lifeguards from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution spending their nightshift in their lifeboat station on the River Thames. They are dealing with the death of their mother whom they could not save. My strong connection with the UK was wounded by Brexit. Indeed I've always been very attached to this culture since I moved there when I was fourteen to start studying art at school. It made a long lasting imprint on me. It was a boarding school and there was a real feeling of belonging to a community. When Brexit happened it opened up this wound of separation that was created when I left the UK and came back to Brussels. I feel the destruction of Citygate reignites within me this same wound of losing connection with a place, a space that contains relations.

Team
Eugénie BERNACHON
Evert DE MAEYER
Laurent DE MONTALEMBERT
Lucas DENUWELAERE
Fabien DI LIBERATORE
Bojana DRAČA
Julie GOLDSTEINAS
Eloïse MAËS
France MORIN
Titouan QUITTOT
Steve SALEMBIER
Daphné SEALE
Demian VITANZA
Audrey WERTHLE
Elisabeth WORONOFF

Written and directed by Elisabeth Woronoff. The performance contains an act of LONDINIUM by Demian Vitanza, published by H. Aschehoug & Co ; Courtesy of Colombine Teaterförlag Sweden ; French translation by Terje Sinding published at Maison Antoine Vitez.

Produced by ARTEOS asbl, coproduced by Le Festival LONDINIUM CITYGATE in collaboration with La Commune d'Anderlecht, Café Congo and Arts Management Agency.

With the support of La Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service Général de la Création Artistique – Direction du Théâtre.

With the help of Théâtre et Public, especially grateful for Klaudia Maraite precious support.

A special thanks to all the people who participated in the interviews from the UK and from CityGate. And another special thanks to all the artists residents of CityGate who were in charge of the workshops during the Festival LONDINIUM CITYGATE, La Gadoue, Nick Van de Vel, 3STUDIOS, Joëlle Sambi, Rokia Bamba, Elisabeth Lebailly, Gia Abrassart, Anne Wetsi, Pierre Coric.
And to the participants of these workshops.

Many thanks to Theatre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Cédric Otte, Ludovic Desclin, Enyd, Hector Salazar, Isabelle Gyselinx, Françoise Bloch, Brune Bazin, Tine Verbist, Alexander Stragier, Precy Numbi, Thibault Lamy.