About

In this article, I analyse Colon(ial)oscopie, a show by the company Ah mon amour! presented in the cities of Brussels, Liège, among others, between 2015 and 2020, which also included performances exclusively for secondary schools. Colon(ial)oscopie questions the representations and negative memories of the Other African as colonial vestiges and heritages in contemporary Belgian society. My study begins by contextualizing the spectacle in the Belgian cultural production of the 21st century that makes a return to the colonial past through the arts and literature. I then analyse how Colon(ial)oscopie performs this revisiting through critical theatre which, by refusing the fourth wall, forces the viewer to take an active, committed/engaged attitude, away from the comfort of the theatre of illusion. It is in the context of the political and pedagogical perspective of the company that the debates between the actors/authors and the audience that follow most of the performances take place. They are a key moment which allows us to challenge and perceive the degree of (dis)knowledge of the colonial period in today's Belgian society, particularly among the secondary education student audience.