Wasted Land

Inspired by queer ecology, Ntando Cele uses theatre, dark humour, choir construction, and video to expose the complex relationship between people and their waste. Against an apocalyptic backdrop, Cele dissects the human catastrophes that arise from the worlds of fast fashion and Western feel-good ecology, where organic labels and soothing promises of recycling provide a source of comfort. Or: how one person's dream of sustainability can mean another's downfall. 

South African artist Ntando Cele delivers a fiery performance and musical, drawing inspiration from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1923), as well as contemporary sociological and scientific research on colonialism and waste. A melodic landscape emerges that shifts between theatrical performance, video projection, and poetic concert. 

Is it possible to imagine a world in which societies stand in solidarity against injustice? Against the oppression of all humans, non-humans, and the Earth itself? Through the lens of fast fashion, the performance examines ecological ideologies of sustainability in Western Europe and the persistent social injustice elsewhere in the world. Fast fashion, after all, connects the West – which continues to consume according to criteria of ‘the good life’ – with developing countries that produce at low cost and in exchange for that also amass globalized waste. 

• Ntando Cele is a director and theatremaker from South America, living in Bern. She has created and performed political performances and has, as part of Manaka Empowerment Prod., staged several political-musical comedies since 2012. She dissects prejudices and stereotypes and confronts her audience with their perceptions of the world. In 2019–2020, she co-authored, co-directed, and performed Black. Space. Race. A Supersonic Afrobeat Performance. In 2023, she won the Swiss Diversity Award for Wer hat Angst vorm weissen Mann? and the 2023 Swiss Award for Performing Arts.