Wild Card residency for Zwoisy Mears-Clarke in Amsterdam

In the frame of the Wild Cards 2016/2017, Veem House for Performance offers a 2 weeks residency at ICK (International Choreographic Arts Centre) Amsterdam to the exchange partner Uferstudios Berlin that chose Zwoisy Mears-Clarke for this slot.

The program offers:

-       use of studio
-       accommodation & travel for one person
-       small fee of € 375
-       ‘outside eyes’ (advisors such as dramaturges, artists, theoreticians that give feedback during the residency)
-       small production budget of € 350

The residency takes place at the same time with residencies of two other artists, with whom exchange of thoughts could take place. The residency wraps up with a sharing of all the artists in residency at that period (the form is completely free and up to the artists) where the local scene/audience is invited to come and give feedback.

AT WORK is a series of residencies for young performance and dance makers, with coaching of “Outside Eyes” from town and abroad. As a Wild Card exchange with Uferstudios Berlin, Veem House for performance invited to be AT WORK in October Zwoisy Mears- Clarke

Zwoisy was born in Jamaica and immigrated to U.S.A., before heading off again at 21. Following this ongoing migratory experience his work focuses on the translation of untold stories, where the final language is physical embodiment. Paired with discussion of personal stories throughout the process of creating each piece, full-bodied movement, gestures, scholarly literature and collaboration are used to support its materialization. The aim remains to provide alternatives ways to share experiences and form connections between estranged communities.

Zwoisy: “I would like to begin the creation process of, or rather conduct the research phase for and create a work-in-progress version of, a 20-minute solo performance in which I set a table and my body lays bare my emotional, ethnical, and historical relationship to this labor.

In this work, I am looking at the event of someone sharing their family’s or country’s traditional cooking with another person of a different nationality or food culture. This event is seen not only as an act of care but also as a place where two histories, or rather heritages - that of the host and that of the guest - are juxtaposed.

Within this frame, I am interested in finding a physical translation of one ‘carrying’ their heritage (to the dining table). I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. As I will be the soloist, the food and heritage that I will working with is traditional Jamaican food as well as my black/slave heritage.”

Zwoisy will work for two weeks in Amsterdam, looking into the history of the city with respect to slavery and will conduct the research in the studio of Veem, joined by several outside eyes and Joy Mariama Smit as a collaborator.

You are invited on the 21^st of October to have a look ‘in the kitchen’; there will be soup and a sharing of Zwoisy’s work in process.

AT WORK SHARING has free entry, please make a reservation by e-mailing to: info(at)veem.house.

AT WORK is a collaboration between Veem House for Performance and ICK Amsterdam. The participation of Zwoisy is a Wild Card exchange between Uferstudios Berlin and Veem House for Performance.