_ Residence April 15-19, 2024
_ Taller 18 y performance 19 de abril
Cannibalism is a term dating from Columbus time used to dehumanize indigeneous inhabitants from the lands Europeans came to colonize. This research proposes to reverse this white and western concept towards ourselves and interrogate our own whiteness through it. If cannibalism (as in the concrete act of eating human flesh) happened in many forms in Europe, we propose to look at this notion with a broader view. It could be understood as an ensemble of dehumanizing practices based on the pre-desire of the other’s flesh, these actions ending in annihilating and destroying the object of this desire. As we are white able-bodied afab performers, our research will focus on what we experienced. Applied to feminist and queer theories, cannibalism could be framed as the constructed male desire on « female » bodies which in western culture results in sexual and gender-based violence.
We will be investigating patternal gestures of these objectifying structures by imposing them on each other’s bodies. Slapping, biting, hair- and breast-pulling or hip bending will be inflicted on each other. Nonetheless as it is two female-assigned and queer bodies sharing similar background stories, the research hypothesis we formulate is that the cannibalistic polarity could be disrupted, these gestures un-meant up until the point where the teasing of the flesh would be uncovered as non-sexual and non-gendered pleasures; forms of queer body interactions could offer a different direction to this pre-(eating) human desire of the other’s flesh.
KULSHEDRA (he/they)
Is a movement artist, performer, teacher, pleasure activist, body worker, who grew up in Albania and Italy and is currently based in Berlin. They have been performing exclusively for queer and multidisciplinary events that focus on coming together and giving a big f uck y ou to social norms of purity.
https://www.instagram.com/unlocked_kulshedra/
Zélie DP (they/them)
Is a white French abled-bodied afab non-binary artist based in Berlin whose both performance and filmmaking practices question queerness, sexuality and sexual/gender-based violence as social constructs that can be undone.
https://www.instagram.com/dizzzy_raw_/