Table of Contents
Vanessa Sindihebura, a multidisciplinary artist and performer, crafts immersive, emotionally charged works that push the boundaries of how we perceive rest, memory, and resilience. In their performance piece Biheko, rest becomes a tool not of escape, but of confrontation and remembrance. The work draws from East African oral histories, precolonial queer narratives, and sonic environments to restore what colonization tried to erase.
1. Rest as Political Resistance
In today’s hyper-capitalist society, where productivity is often conflated with worth and success, the simple act of rest has become deeply political—especially for marginalized communities. Vanessa Sindihebura reframes rest not as a passive act or indulgence, but as a radical tool of defiance against systems that commodify time, labor, and even the body itself. In their performance Biheko, rest is weaponized against histories of extraction—colonial, patriarchal, and heteronormative—that have long demanded unrelenting labor, particularly from Black and queer individuals.
Sindihebura’s message is both clear and poetic: to rest is to resist erasure. It is to reclaim ownership over one’s body, rhythm, and healing. In Biheko, periods of stillness, breath, and non-verbal presence interrupt the expectation of constant performance. These moments create space for audience members to reflect not just on what is being said or done, but on what is felt. The silence becomes sound. The pause becomes language. The stillness becomes movement.
By choosing rest as both method and message, Sindihebura invites audiences to interrogate their own complicity in systems of urgency and exhaustion. The performance becomes a shared pause—a collective recalibration of what it means to be productive, alive, and free. For many in the room, particularly those whose histories are bound up in generational survival, the call to rest becomes an invitation to exist without justification. That, in itself, is revolutionary.
2. Dreaming as Ancestral Dialogue
Sindihebura integrates dream logic into the structure of the performance. Movement sequences flow in nonlinear patterns, accompanied by field recordings of insects from Burundi and Rwanda, creating a dreamlike auditory experience. These sounds act as ancestral messengers, weaving the subconscious into the physical space.
3. Queer Pre-Colonial Memory
One of the most powerful themes in Biheko is the reclamation of precolonial queer presence. Sindihebura incorporates traditional symbols, fabrics, and story fragments that hint at identities erased by Western colonial ideologies. Through dance, voice, and costume, they re-inscribe queer lives into African memory.
4. Maternal Legacy and Care
The performance deeply explores the idea of mothering. Sindihebura speaks of maternal figures — both biological and metaphorical — whose stories are often muted. By slowing time and allowing space for tenderness, Biheko creates a nurturing environment that honors forgotten maternal energies.
5. Sound as Spirit
Sound in Biheko is not background — it is a spirit. The performance features layered soundscapes with recorded voices, breathing, birdsong, and buzzing insects. These elements shape emotional resonance and connect the audience to ecological and ancestral rhythms often silenced in modern life.
6. Rest Spaces as Protest Architecture
The spatial design of the performance resists traditional theatrical separation. Audience members are invited to lie down, move freely, and enter a soft-lit, textile-covered environment. It is a womb-like protest against hard edges and surveillance, centering softness as strength.
7. East African Oral Traditions Reimagined
Rooted in storytelling, Biheko modernizes oral history with body language and technology. Vanessa becomes both griot and subject, carrying stories through voice, posture, and presence. This is particularly evident in segments that reenact lullabies or use call-and-response methods known in East African traditions.
Intersections of Rest and Queer Joy
Beyond the resistance, Biheko is about joy — queer joy rooted in legacy and healing. The choice to rest, to remember, to gather, becomes a joyful declaration that presence matters, that stillness can be vibrant. Vanessa Sindihebura’s art reminds us that rest is a form of love.
Artist’s Reflection
“Rest is how I speak to the dead, how I hold space for what was lost, and how I prepare myself for what is possible.” — Vanessa Sindihebura
About the Artist
Vanessa Sindihebura is a performer, sound artist, and co-founder of Blackbox Lausanne. Their practice crosses borders of identity, memory, and resistance. Learn more at Bubblegum Club.
