Dorine Mokha & Elia Rediger

Shortly before the lockdown, the oratorio «Hercules of Lubumbashi» was presented in the parliament house of the eponymous mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eleven Congolese and European musicians took the seats of the members of parliament on stage. This joint project of the Congolese choreographer and dancer Dorine Mokha, whose parents worked in a mining company for all their lives, and Elia Rediger, a Swiss musician and composer born in the DRC, focuses on the increasing demand for cobalt, on corruption and exploitation in the mining industry and the destruction of the environment.

The transnational dialogue on economic injustices stimulated by this project was brought to a sudden halt by the international travel restrictions due to the pandemic. Instead of travelling to Zurich to perform «Hercules» on the Lakeside Stage at the festival, the participants are now stuck at home in front of their screens. Mokha, Rediger and the dramaturge Eva-Maria Bertschy have responded to the new situation by creating a truly cross-border music and video installation with live elements showing us how everything is connected in a globalised world. Spectators will be admitted one by one to a parcours with different stations, where they will meet the protagonists virtually: a choir of miners, for example, or the two initiators of the project, Mokha and Rediger. They will witness some disturbing realities, but also experience the beauty and brutality of music.

«Hercules of Lubumbashi» is no moralising lecture, yet its creators have a clear message: something needs to be done. People need to fight against the scandalous machinations of the Swiss commodity trader Glencore in the Congo. The corporation exploits the land and people without assuming responsibility. The same allegations are made by human rights and environmental organisations, prosecutors, investigative journalists and the committee behind the Responsible Business Initiative, a popular initiative voted on this November in Switzerland. The multi-billion dollar corporation is accused of corrupt practices, tax evasion and ecocide. The consequences: The profits from the Congolese mining business are transferred abroad or land the pockets of a few politicians while the population is left empty-handed.

But who could take it up with a global economic giant such as Glencore? Who challenges the gods, who indulge themselves with their machinations up on Mount Olympus? In the production of Mokha and Rediger the answer is: Hercules of Lubumbashi – a mythological figure from the Congolese mining town, an activist and musician, onto whom we project all our hopes and dreams of a fairer world. (rb)