Part ritual, part performance, “Magic Maids” presents an encounter with two moving figures engaged in acts of sweeping. The broom, a domestic tool for cleaning, becomes extension of the body, an axis that bridges the complex deep rooted entanglements between European witch hunts and domestic labour. The two art workers and their brooms are in continuous states of becoming. Both makers, Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera, come from countries known for their export of domestic workers: Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Their collaboration began in 2022, when they saw the plaque commemorating people accused as witches, who were thrown over the bridge into the river of Basel. Delving further, Venuri and Eisa uncovered the difficult history of these persecutions in Europe. In their research, they grappled with the consequences of European witch trials for the exploitation of female labour in the colonised world, but also that accusation of witchcraft is still used today as a tool for the persecution of migrant workers in the Global South. “Magic Maids” is a bodily response to this complex entanglements of histories and presents and an embodied inquiry into questions of ‘representation’ of the body in the labour of performance.
“Magic Maids” proposes an ongoing practice of creating together that unsettles oppressive structures of power. The performers call on knowledge embedded in female practices of solidarity, exploring the power of incantation, intention and gossip, to interrogate systematic violence. Their bodies in conversation, traverse multiple territories seeking to release, reclaim, rejoice, and reconnect with the primal.
Production Credits
Concept, Creation and Performance: Eisa Jocson, Venuri Perera
Sound Design: Soraya Bonaventure
Text Advice: Ruhanie Perera
Artistic Advice: Rasa Alksnyte
Spiritual Advice: Nenet Ocson Babaylan-Vaigaland
Lighting Design: Ariana
Outside Eyes and Ears: Arco Renz, Tang Fu Kuen
In - House dramaturgical support: Anna Wagner, Alexandra Hennig
Technical production manager: Seok Hui Yap
Production manager: Katja Armknecht /Anne Kleiner
Production Assistant: Greta Klein
Production adviser: Sandro Lunin
"Magic Maids" by Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera is a production of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in co-production with Frascati Producties supported by Ammodo (NL), Tanzquartier Wien, Hebbel am Ufer - Berlin, Spring Performing Arts Festival - Utrecht, Festival Theaterformen - Hannover/ Braunschweig, DDD - Festival Dias da Dança - Porto, Kampnagel - Hamburg, L’ Arsenic - Centre d’art scénique contemporian - Lausanne, La Briqueterie-Vitry-sur-Seine, Points communs - nouvelle scène nationale Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise, Le Maillot - Strassbourg, and The Esplanade - Singapore. Funded as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and the Hessian Ministry of Science and Arts. This project is supported by Kaserne Basel and is part of the Colomboscope Contemporary Art Festival 2024.
About the Artists
Eisa Jocson is a visual artist and choreographer based in Manila. She came to
contemporary dance through pole dance. In her pieces, she explores the entanglements of 'gender', 'affective labour', 'migration' and 'corporeality'. She has explored the economies of pole dancing, appropriated macho dancing - a form of hypermasculine erotic dance practiced primarily in Filipino gay bars - and examined the expressive and movement vocabulary of Disney characters such as Snow White, a role denied to Filipino performers in amusement parks. She regularly presents her pieces at renowned
theatres and international festivals in Asia and Europe, such as Tanz im August, TPAM Yokohama, Zürcher Theaterspektakel and Frankfurter Positionen. In 2018 she received the Culture Centre of the Philippines 13 Artists Award and in 2019 the Hugo Boos Asia Art Award.
Venuri Perera is a choreographer, performance artist, curator and educator from Colombo. Exploring the power dynamics of visibility and opacity, she attempts to destabilise how we perceive the ‘other.’ Her solo and collaborative creations deal with violent nationalism, patriarchy, immigration, colonial heritage and class and were invited to festivals/biennales/symposia across Europe, South and East Asia, Middle East and Africa since 2008. She has closely collaborated with choreographers Geumhyung Jeong (SK) (Theatre Spektakel/ Monsoon Australia) Natsuko Tezuka (JP) (Kyoto Experiment/SIFA Singapore) Venuri conceived and curated the projects of the Colombo
Dance Platform (2015-2020, Goethe-Institut) and is committed to continue creating support networks for the independent dance scene in Sri Lanka. A graduate of DAS Theatre, she is currently based in Amsterdam.
- Venue: Great Hall
- Location: The Great Hall
- Ticket price: ZAR 110.00
- Programme type: Curated Programme
- Genre: Dance & Physical Theatre
- Duration: 80 minutes
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Ages:
12+
