4Hoog

This is a place that is different ("ANDRS").
Here, like every other being, you become essential.
Because you are different. Just like everyone else.
Here you are safe. Here you are allowed to be.
Here you are celebrated as you are. And when you are angry, we help you scream.
Everything here breathes together.

We are Bibbel, Narbi, and Domorimo.
We hug the ground we sleep on. The ground that sings for us.

Singing for the sun.
Dancing for the moon.
This is how we transform every tear.
This is how we care for every precious being.

ANDRS is an Afrofuturistic, visual universe for everyone aged three and up, where care is taken of one another and of the landscape.
An ecosystem full of color, big emotions, music, wonder, and celebration.

Performance: Maryam Sserwamukoko, John Niyibizi & Joram Kunde Boumkwo
Music: Joram Kunde Boumkwo
Text & Direction: Dounia Mahammed & Sara Lâm
Scenography: Musia Mwankumi
Lighting Design: Ellie Bryce & Peter Van Hoof
Costumes: Rachid Laachir
Stage Costume: Fien Verheyen
Technical Support: Peter Van Hoof
Production Management: Emma Verstraete and Flo Delameilleure
Production: 4Hoog
Co-production: Perpodium
With the support of the tax shelter of the Belgian Federal Government via UFund.
Thanks to: Samuel Baïdoo and Stephanie Collingwoode Williams

About the makers

Maryam Sserwamukoko attends the master's programme in drama at KASK, where she created and performed the performance ‘Life in Plastic’ with theatre-maker Emma Verstraete. She also made her debut this autumn in FC Bergman's wordless performance ‘Work and Days’. She was also seen this summer in ‘Macbeth’ by Ghent collective En Garde.

John Niyibizi graduated as a performer and creator from RITCS, school of arts, Brussels, in 2022. In London, he connected the dots with a course in Collaborative Theatre Making at Rose Bruford College. On stage, he mainly uses his physicality to tell stories and create worlds. He currently plays in the performance ‘PUPPY/POPPY’ (DE MAAN & BRONKS) directed by Jef Van gestel and also in ‘The Soft Layer’ by Jozef Wouters. In the past, he could be seen in ‘Dwarskijker’ by de Roovers and ‘De stomme van Portici’ (WALPURGIS) directed by Judith Vindevogel.

Dounia Mahammed (she/they) graduated from KASK in 2015 with the performance Salut Copain and describes themself as a queer writing-making performer whose work seeks connection, navigating between wonder and doubt. Dounia created w a t e r w a s w a s s e r and GNAB◊RRETN¡ with Alan Van Rompuy, PANIC & OTHER ATTACKS with Roos Nieboer, and MALINCONICO with Par Hasard and co; performed in the work of others; wrote text for Ophelia by Inne Goris; provided voice work and coaching for Bambiraptor by Jonas Baeke and Mats Vandroogenbroeck; and premiered this spring with the performance En peau de pêche.

Kunde aka Joram Kunde Boumkwo is a rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist who mixes hip-hop with elements of contemporary jazz, P-funk and afrobeat. Surrounded by his father's Pan-African polyrhythmic music and his own collection of nineties hip-hop, he developed a passion for beatboxing and beatmaking as a ten-year-old. Later, the Ghent-based artist developed into a pianist, vocalist and bass guitarist. His debut album Dandelion was released in 2024 on W.E.R.F. Records. In that concept album, he uses storytelling, rap, spoken word and field recordings of his experiences in Cameroon to explore the complexities of his Afro-Belgian identity, intergenerational trauma, toxic masculinity and neocolonialism.

Sara Lâm is a transdisciplinary artist, theatre maker and co-founder of KIN Collective. After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp, she worked as a creator and performer with De Warme Winkel, Ula Sickle, De Roovers, Par Hasard and others. Together with KIN Collective, she creates intuitive, research-based and anti-capitalist work. KIN C is currently working on “Heritage”. In this artistic research, they create magical and virtual meeting places with ancestors, among other things. And in the artistic research “Assimilated memory”, Sara explores the sensory experience of her biculturalism through writing and drawing.
Her work is always deeply personal and rooted in a queer and anti-racist critique of society and power structures. It is both an intimate reflection on her own experiences and an exposure of layers of oppression and violence in our language, media and culture. Her work reminds us of the joy that comes with creating, transforming and bringing something new and different into the world.