MACKENZY BERGILE

Few artists are as multifaceted in their practice as Mackenzy Bergile. A self-taught dancer, choreographer, composer, and writer, he also works as a model and photographer. He has contributed as a dancer, musician, and composer to Saïdo Lehlouh’s acclaimed stage works EARTHBOUND (Kampnagel 2022) and TÉMOIN (Summer Festival 2024), and draws in his own creations on the cultural influences of his countries of origin, Haiti and France. With AUTOTHÉRAPIE, he presents a world premiere that emerged from his intensely poetic performance at last year’s Summer Festival, which he presented together with dancer Mayvis William in the Spiegelsaal of the MK&G museum. Now developed into a full-length solo stage work, the piece weaves together elements of hip-hop, jazz, ballet, and traditional Haitian dances into an expressively sensitive movement language that channels memory, trance, and resistance.

The performance unfolds through a series of non-linear sessions that follow fragmented traces of memory—echoes of Afro-diasporic culture, history, and experience that stretch across time, continents, and narratives. Its structure reflects years of artistic research and a deep interest in how history inscribes itself somatically into the body. Inspired by Haitian Spiralism, a literary and political mode of thought that conceives of history as cyclical and polyphonic, Bergile creates a moving topography of violence, resistance, and spirituality.