WKcollective | La visite

Wanjiru Kamuyu, choreographer and performer, Tommy Pascal, director specialized in dance and music, alongside dramaturge Dirk Korell, created La visite. A film inspired by Wanjiru Kamuyu’s new solo work, An Immigrant’s Story and her sensorial journey within the Palais de la Porte Dorée (The Golden Gate Palace) in Paris.

Born into a bi-cultural home (Kenyan American) and having lived on three continents (Africa, North America and Europe), Wanjiru Kamuyu is intrigued by each society’s general relationship to and provocation around the image of the body.

December 4th to 6th 2020, at The Palais de la Porte Dorée in partnership with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Wanjiru was programmed to present An Immigrant’s Story. Through the lens of her personal migration from Kenya to France via the United States of America, interwoven with a collection of diverse migration stories, the solo examines the notions of displacement and otherness.

Despite the cancellation of the performances due to the health crisis, Wanjiru and the presenting partners desired to find a new medium to render the work visible. Thus giving birth to the film, La visite directed by Tommy Pascal.

La visite brings together elements of Wanjiru’s solo in resonance with the layered history of the Palais de la Porte Dorée. The building constructed in 1931 for the International Colonial Exposition, was originally intended to be the Historical Museum of French Colonies. After several attributions it is now the home of the National Historical Museum of Immigration.

Through movement and image, La visite, echoes colonial heritage coming up against the contemporary plight in the decolonization of the mind and body.