Manquement / May our love continue to grow (2023 - 2024)

Manquement / May our Love Continue to Grow with Happiness and Peace, was a transformative project created by Djuwa. It started out as the solo piece “Manquement” in 2023 and later transformed into Manquement 2.0. Manquement inspired Djuwa to create the exhibition “May our Love Continue to Grow with Happiness and Peace” at ITA, collaborating with photographer Tengbeh Kamara. This exhibition later inspired the homonymous show performed at Over t IJ Festival.

Manquement (Over het IJ Festival) — 14 t/m 22 juli 2023

Manquement was a 45-minute solo performance of text theatre, which took place in a Black hair shop on the IJ. In this performance, Djuwa used critical fabulation as used by Saidya Hartman in her book Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. In this way, a fictional-autobiographical story was formed in which the tension of not being out to family, the colonial history of queerphobia on the African continent, and the queer history of Amsterdam were interwoven. An ode to the safety and history of the hair shop, and to the verbal and non-verbal love language of (chosen) family. Photography: Catalina Reyes Navarro.

Manquement 2.0 (Frascati) — 2 en 3 november 2023

This version of Manquement was adapted to the location, incorporating not only research into the history of Frascati, but also to current developments in Djuwa's own life.

May Our Love Continue to Grow with Happiness and Peace Exhibition (ITA) - 20 Maart 2024
In this exhibition, Mroivili presents photography and kangas as a medium, rectangular, East African canvases topped with texts in Swahili, which document the process that followed her coming out to her father. Through her artworks, she engages with him. With this exhibition, Mroivili pays homage to the eloquence of kangas, whose texts can communicate wisdom, love and bombastic side eyes. The photographs, self-portraits by Mroivili, were taken at various locations in Amsterdam. They connect the everyday Amsterdam street scene to the colonial past that contributed to the repression and erasure of queerness on the African continent and beyond. Photography: Tengbeh Kamara. Assistant director: Storm Vogel

May Our Love Continue to Grow with Happiness and Peace Production (Over het IJ Festival) — 11 t/m 14 juli 2024

This performance was a musical theatre elaboration of the exhibition of the same name that Djuwa made at ITA. In this performance, Djuwa used four characters from her exhibition to show how colonization from centuries ago still has an effect on the stigmatization of African queers and their family relationships, and on the Amsterdam street scene. The performance took place in the NDSM warehouse, and contained a further musical elaboration of her performance at Felix Meritis, consisting of completely self-written music with references to classical music, the ballroom scene, spirituals and hip hop. Director: Storm Vogel. Costume (panther coats): Berend Brus.