For the France-Brazil 2025 Cross-Cultural Season, MansA presents an artistic and political journey between Paris, Lille, Rio, São Paulo, and Salvador. The program, in two parts – Perifeeria in France and I Am Myself the Sun in Brazil – highlights Afro-descendant creations and voices from the peripheries, celebrating memory, innovation, and emancipation.
Supported by the Institut français and the Institut Guimarães Rosa, this Season celebrates the historical, artistic and political ties between the two countries. MansA is taking part with an editorial and cultural project in France (May and September) and Brazil (November-December), focusing on Afro-descendant creation, diasporic memories and aesthetics of the margins.
Inspired by Ousmane Sembène’s phrase “I myself am the Sun” (film Caméra d’Afrique, 1983, Férid Boughedir), the program asserts that often-invisible peripheries are powerful centers shaping the present.
Perifeeria (#1) - Pantin, May 2025
From May 21 to 23, 2025, the first sequence took place at Dock B (Pantin), with three days of themed performances, screenings, encounters, and music.
Wednesday, May 21 - No Centro
Literary encounter with authors Geovani Martins (Brazil) and Balla Fofana (France), moderated by Maïram Guissé. Through stories of favelas, suburban chronicles, and urban poetry, the authors explored how fiction can reveal often-invisible social realities.
Thursday, May 22 - CinéMansa #6
Screening of the documentary Salão de Baile: This is ballroom (2024 ) by Vitã & Juru. This was followed by a round table discussion moderated by Marcelo Porto, bringing together Lua Brainer, André DB and Keiona Revlon, leading figures in the black queer scene.
Friday, May 23 - MansA BR55: Grand finale
After an open-air introductory class in passinho and voguing, a baile funk closing party featured DJs SSSound (FR), Dja Dja (BR), Lorrany (BR), Mac Julia (BR), and Mel V (FR).
Waz the Funk - Lille, September 2025
Saturday, September 13 - DJ night
To round off Perifeeria and the exhibition Baile Funk: un cri de liberté (on show in Lille from June 21 to September 21), MansA and Lille3000 organized a DJ party at Maison Folie Wazemmes on Saturday September 13.
Je suis moi-même le soleil (#2) - Brazil, November 2025
Between November and December 2025, MansA presents the second part of its program as part of the Saison France-Brésil 2025.
November 14 to 20, 2025 – São Paulo
At Centro Cultural Tendal da Lapa, Kancícà , an immersive installation produced by MansA and Dream Feel Factory between France, Brazil and Benin, opens the season with a sensory journey between continents, where shared heritages and imaginaries interact.
November 20-21, 2025 - Salvador
In Salvador, the Casa do Benin hosts culinary and spiritual gatherings where chefs and researchers reinvent the memory of Afro-Atlantic cuisines.
November 27 to December 9, 2025 – Rio de Janeiro
At the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Kancícà is open to the public with an opening, round table and concert, extending the dialogue between visual arts, sounds and Afro-descendant imaginaries.
Find out more:
