An Opera House for Burkina Faso

The laying of the foundation stone was accompanied by Goethe as the spiritual father of this special moment. He was also probably one of the greatest and most intense influences in the life of Christoph Schlingensief (49), the distinguished German theatre and opera director, filmmaker and action artist. “Stay a while, you are so beautiful” – using the words of the famous German poet he called out to the moment, which nevertheless vanished, stealing away across the savannah towards the African horizon.

An almost empty piece of earth, five hectares in size, in the West African country Burkina Faso. Fourteen chieftains and a few hundred spectators from the surrounding villages came on February 8. And the wind rustled in the monkey bread trees at the birth of the enterprise that is to become Christoph Schlingensief’s festival hall.

When described in simple terms, the story is quite short. A charismatic artist falls desperately ill, rebels, contemplates, dreams, allows his desires and visions to grow again. It’s the re-invention of art, not only for the sake of art itself, but also as a symbol of personal resurrection. The idea emerges: a festival hall for Africa.

Enlarge image German Director Christoph Sclingensief (© picture-alliance/dpa) In June 2009, Schlingensief sets off on his journey, visits Cameroon and Tanzania. He finds the landscape he is looking for in Burkina Faso, in the village of Laongo, about an hour away from the capital Ouagadougou. And he finds the man he is looking for to give shape to the idea, to integrate Africa’s cheerfulness and its light: Francis Kéré, an award-winning architect from Burkina Faso who lives in Berlin. Together, they dream and plan: an opera house, a school where children are taught, among other things in classes for film and music. A clinic, workshops, a guest house – a building like a snail’s shell that grows from the centre outwards, made from the earth of Burkina Faso, from the country’s own soil.
It is to be a village, an Opera Village, filled with African life and music. It is a part of the present, but with education and training it will be part of the future, too. It unites the opera as a symbol of European tradition, and the village as the quintessence of the African community.

Schlingensief corrects any false notions about his project: he’s not aiming to create a second edition of Bayreuth’s Wagner Festival. Rather, he sees his idea as support for domestic cultural efforts. And his concept is championed by Filippe Savadogo, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Culture. “The Opera Village of Laongo will give young people the opportunity to discover and develop their talents in a favourable environment. It will be a place where European and African cultures meet, even the cultures of the world,” Savadogo writes in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.

Laongo is a well-known area in Burkina Faso. It has a sculpture park, and festivals are familiar in Burkina Faso as well. Since 1969 Ouagadougou has been the venue of the Pan African Film Festival, which is known in both Africa and in the former colonial countries. Burkina Faso is the centre of African theatre. And the ornamental designs and patterns with which the women decorate the walls of the huts are internationally recognized as great art.

Schlingensief says that we should learn from Africa, that the purity of life and art are united in his project which marries his idea of art with active development aid. Schlingensief’s enthusiasm replaces the gloomy image of warring Africa with the bright hope of an all-embracing culture. He persuades others to join him as well: Germany’s Federal President as a spiritual and moral supporter, private donors, such as the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, the German Hollywood director Roland Emmerich and the musician Herbert Grönemeyer. But along with them many small donors have contributed by raising 220,000 Euro so far. The German Foreign Office is giving a quarter of a million Euro, the Federal Culture Foundation and the Goethe-Institut are also donating to the project. Meanwhile over a million Euro have been collected already to realize the existing ideas.

Enlarge image Computer model of Schlingensief's planned opera house in Burkina Faso (© picture-alliance/dpa) “The building is an improvisation,” says Francis Kéré. “We’ll carry on building continually, nothing is linear – that wouldn’t fit in with Africa at all. In Africa the whole of life is an improvisation.” Kéré expects the festival hall to be “operational” before the end of this year.

The festival hall has become the main focus of his work. “Yes, we need this building. It’s a window that will help Europe to understand Africa. In this building we simply gather and bundle what is already there, and we show it to the West. Even now everything is multiplying. We have a sponsor for a music school, and we have African companies who want to help and donate. The dynamics are amazing.” Apart from that, he points out that the project is creating jobs. “We’ve trained 40 people. A small market has now developed at the construction site, and people come from further away to see what’s happening.”

Christoph Schlingensief is already planning the first performances. The idea soars on the wings of his inspiration. The project is financially secure and is sure to survive. And so, this visible trace of the director will remain – the moment that is too beautiful to disappear.