Kristien De Proost & Bwanga Pilipili

Kristien de Proost, a Belgian director and actress, met Bwanga Pilipili, an actress and director of Congolese origin, around the idea of imitating as faithfully as possible the famous live concert of Simon & Garfunkel in Central Park in 1981. The two musicians are known for their troubled relationship. The concert will be the starting point for a show on the specific dynamics of artistic duets.

From Kristien and Bwanga’s meeting, intense conversations arise around the issues of rivalry and dependency, #metoo and the complex process of decolonization of art and society.

For Kristien, it’s about facing an uncomfortable truth. For Bwanga, it is about surviving in a system where the norm is white and where her fundamental rights are routinely violated.

Kristien begins the show like Paul Simon, who likes to keep everything under control. Bwanga plays Art Garfunkel, who wants to make his voice heard. It is this duality that the two actresses explore in Simon, Garfunkel, My Sister & Me, an energetic and uncomplicated show.

Kristien de Proost has worked at the Toneelhuis (Luk Perceval, Jasper Brandis), het Paleis, Victoria (Christoph Frick), Crew (Eric Joris), KVS, BRONKS (Johan Dehollander), Transquinquennal and LOD (Josse De Pauw).
From 2004 to 2017 she was part of the artistic core of the theatre artists’ collective Tristero. Her first solo show Toestand, a theatrical self-portrait in which she performs the extremely physical performance of running on a treadmill for more than 70 minutes, toured in French (Au Courant) and English (On Track) in Belgium and internationally. In 2019, she joins Lisi Estaras, Mirko Banovic and Sara Vanderieck in the research project When I look at a Strawberry, I think of a Tongue.
More info : kristiendeproost.be

Bwanga Pilipili worked as an actress in productions directed by Nathalie Uffner, then Christian Schiaretti. In 2013, she joins the team of Milo Rau and the International Institute of Political Murder in Avignon and continues the international tour of the documentary play Hate Radio. In 2016, she rejoins the NPT team for La Tragédie du Roi Christophe.
Since 2012, she has been hosting literary meetings within the Lingeer association. In 2018, she wrote and directed Datcha Congo, an adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, on the stage of the Tarmac des Auteurs in Kinshasa.
Co-organizer of the Festival Bruxelles/Africapitales in collaboration with the Halles de Schaerbeek and a collective of Afro-descendants, Mademoiselle PILIPILI and Uhorakeye will pilot the project Gens de Bruxelles/ MarchésMarcher.