HANNIBAL
Performance / KVS Brussels
Directed by Michael De Cock & Junior Mthombeni
Nine universities — seven European and two African — collaborated on a six-year research project exploring alternative approaches to migration discourse. This project, called Opportunities, culminated in the creation of an artistic work in partnership with the Royal Flemish Theatre of Brussels (KVS).
Hannibal emerged from this context as a multidisciplinary performance conceived by Michael De Cock and Junior Mthombeni. Drawing on the historical figure of Hannibal Barca, the piece explores cyclical migration, the violence inherent in borders and the stereotypes imposed on 'the other'.
The work unfolds as a total theatrical experience in which opera, DJ culture, hip-hop and performance converge. Artists from Belgium, Catalonia, Morocco, Senegal and beyond share the stage in a composition shaped by encounter rather than representation.
Within this landscape, my live painting serves as an embodied response to the evolving performance. The act of painting becomes both witness and rupture, tracing presence, erasure, and collective tension in real time. The stage becomes a place of accumulation where gestures and images capture the fragility of the moment.
"Live painting as performative rupture within a multidisciplinary stage work."