Compagnie Basinga (France), with highwire artist Tatiana Mosio-Bongonga. September 4 and September 5, South Street Seaport Museum Plaza, 4:30 pm and 6:30 pm.
Basinga's SOKA TIRA OSOA (literally "pulling the rope") takes its name from the traditional “tug of war,” a sport in which two teams pull on the opposite ends of a rope, each trying to drag the other team across a line drawn in the middle. But Basinga turns the experience into a collaboration between the artists and audience-participants. At the outset, the tightrope walker ‘s wire lies on the ground, and it is the audience members who lift, stretch and stabilize the wire into a tightrope. Then Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga performs her poetic, breathless, spectacular balancing act, accompanied by a pop-up band of local musicians, professional and amateur. "It takes many to be many." Compagnie Basinga’s Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga will carry out her breathtaking crossing in the South Street Seaport’s historic waterfront district, a feat of balance and imbalance, aided by her audience and the pop-up band’s auditory “ground track.”
Basinga’s artistic practices are inseparable from the artists' social mandate: One of the world's rare women highwire performers, Bongonga has been organizing collective adventure skywalk aerial performances without a harness for over a decade. Wherever Basinga performs, she enlists the help of up to sixty local volunteers to stabilize the complex structure supporting the tightrope and help create a ceremony grounded in circus arts that combines music, acrobatics, and mutual trust. Beyond the company’s performances, Basinga conducts cultural and artistic projects in various settings, from hospitals to prisons, offering workshops in tightrope walking, costume design, and photography to promote personal development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxmlCPPTPBQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONB1PIBN948
https://www.lebonbon.fr/paris/news/les-images-de-la-traversee-de-montmartre-par-funambule-tatiana-mosio-bongonga/
A link to a recent documentary on CIE Basinga, ARTE.TV
Location & Schedule