Gnoko Bok

Gnoko Bok, which means “shared pleasure, we are together” in Wolof, is a contemporary circus project performed in situ. Through the aesthetics of a tale written after a tour in Senegal, the artists invite the audience to participate in a huge construction project inspired by a quote from Carolin Emecke: “I am looking for the poetic force, the literary bias that allows us to effectively resist violence .”

Gnoko Bok is a call, a reminder, a denunciation of hypocrisy, an end to pretending that everything is fine. Calling a spade a spade, sweeping the dirt under the rug, embracing our postcolonial heritage, mocking our stereotypes, and always ensuring, with empathy, the fragile balance of living well together. We can do better. Open our eyes, raise our voices, listen, and take responsibility. Watch over, educate, deconstruct, and invent. Like a construction site, everything must be questioned, designed, redesigned, and built. Together.

It is between two worlds that the artists invite the audience to roll up their sleeves with them, on a tightrope, a Chinese pole, the earth and the heavens.

Notes of intent

“To be just a Toubab in the bush and cry over the genes my people left me. To be ashamed of our stories. To know that nothing and no one can erase the traces we have left behind. To know that I will not reproduce, to know that every relationship is inevitable. ” – Senegal, N’Dayane, December 16, 2017

Last name: Simili – Italy
First name: Tania – Russia
Origin: Italian-Swiss
Address: Brussels – Multicultural
Love at first sight: Beirut – Lebanon
Awakening: Dakar – Senegal

Being born in the right place at the right time.
Realization of a privilege.
The privilege of having a choice, of seeing or not seeing.

Returning to her position as an artist.

“Gnoko bok!”

Opening up reflection through the softness of the body, the beauty of gesture, to question and exchange ideas around the common desire for a more equitable world.

Tania Simili

In Wolof in Senegal, Gnoko Bok means “shared pleasure, we are together.” Through the prism of my life journey, my identity, my skin color, and my privileges, this is an ideal, not a reality. Racism is a reality. Place of birth, passport, skin color, religion, physical differences, gender, sexual orientation… everything is subject to prejudice and discrimination and determines each person’s place in our society.
Gnoko Bok is a call, a reminder, a denunciation of hypocrisy, an end to pretending that everything is fine. It is about healing my wounds. Taking off the masks. Calling a spade a spade, bringing the shit out from under the carpet, embracing our postcolonial heritage, mocking our stereotypes, and always ensuring, with empathy, the fragile balance of living well together.
Anti-Black racism is everywhere, from the aesthetic norm of white skin in films, the media, and school playgrounds, to racial profiling, the hyper-sexualization of African women, the Muslim ban, blackface, and pink and white ballet tights. The situation is alarming, because even if explicit racism is still condemned despite its current normalization, systemic racism, which is more insidious, is difficult to eradicate. We can do better. Open our eyes, speak up, listen, and take responsibility. Watch, educate, deconstruct, and invent. Like a construction site, everything must be questioned, designed, redesigned, and built. Together. Gnoko Bok.