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Esplanade Presents
4 Oct 2024, Fri, 7.30pm
5 Oct 2024, Sat, 5pm
6 Oct 2024, Sun, 5pm
(Intermission: None)
Esplanade Annexe Studio
This event is over.
This event is over.
Interweaving ritual, pageantry, performance and possession, Magic Maids presents an encounter with two figures engaged in the ritual act of sweeping. The broom, a domestic tool for cleaning and the vehicle of the witch, becomes a symbol of both oppression and resistance. It is an extension of the body and a portal for metamorphosis. The art workers and their brooms exist in a continuous state of becoming.
Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera are from the Philippines and Sri Lanka respectively, two countries known for their significant export of domestic workers. Their collaboration began in 2022 when they noticed the absence of women at Basel Museum of Pharmaceutical History in Switzerland. This observation sparked their investigation of the historical persecution of witches; in Europe and its implications for the exploitation of female labour in colonised regions. They discovered that the accusation of witchcraft continues to be a tool for persecuting migrant workers from the Global South.
Magic Maids is a bodily response to their grappling with these complex entanglements. They call upon practices of incantation and intention, using their bodies to traverse multiple territories: physical, conceptual, transnational, emotional, and gendered. The labour in performance enables an embodied inquiry into questions of representation, political subjecthood and histories of oppression. Having individually presented solo work across international festivals and platforms that follows this line of inquiry, Jocson and Perera come together for the first time to sweep out and unsettle oppressive power structures. Rewilding the domestic, they aim to release, reclaim, rejoice, and reconnect with the primal energies.
Magic Maids is an invitation to witness and reflect on the visibility of the working body, the power of female solidarity, and the enduring impact of historical injustices on modern labour practices.
The Asian premiere of this production is presented as part of da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN), a weekend that spotlights contemporary dance works by Asian artists focusing on distinct voices and creative impulses from the region.
Production Credits
Concept, Creation, Dramaturgy, Performance: Eisa Jocson, Venuri Perera
Light Design: Ariana Battaglia
Sound Design: Soraya Bonaventure
Artistic Advice: Rasa Alksnyte
Text Advice: Ruhanie Perera
Spiritual Advice: Nenet Ocson Babaylan-Vaigaland
Outside Eyes and Ears: Arco Renz, Tang Fu Kuen
In-House Dramaturgical Support: Anna Wagner, Alexandra Hennig
Production Advice: Sandro Lunin
Technical Production: Seok Hui Yap
Producer: Katja Armknecht, Anne Kleiner
Production Management: Paula Elena Noack, Greta Katharina Klein
Magic Maids by Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera is a production of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in co-production with Frascati Producties (supported by Ammodo), Tanzquartier Wien, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, Festival Theaterformen, DDD - Festival Dias da Dança, Kampnagel, Arsenic - Centre d’art scénique contemporian, La briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne, Points Communs - nouvelle scène nationale Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise, Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. 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 Research, Art and Culture. This project was supported with residences by Kaserne Basel, Puón Institute Philippines, Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka, Dance Nucleus in collaboration with Studio Plesungan as part of ARTEFACT Creative Residency and Colomboscope Contemporary Art Festival 2024.
With gratitude to the wonderful wise working women who generously shared their knowledge and stories with us.
Contains some mature content.
Recommended for 14 and above. Children below the age of 14 should be accompanied by an adult.
Latecomers will not be admitted once the performance has begun. There will be no re-admission for this performance.
Free seating. Chairs and stools will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
There will be a post-show dialogue after each performance.
There are two types of people in the world
The ones that entertain and the ones that observe
Magic Maids
Working Witches
Sweeping Sisters
Brooming B*tches
With every sweep
We work it out
With every sweep
We break it off
We unsettle we untame
Our labour is our spell
We’re not that innocent
From east to west, north to south
Past to present then to now
See us come
Can you hear our sound?
Through the words of Xila Maria River Red
Maria River Red
River red
Red
Red
Spread
Spread
Spread the word
Spread the word
Spread the word
Get to work
Get to work
Work Work Work Work
– Eisa Jocson & Venuri Perera
There are two types of people in the world
The ones that entertain and the ones that observe
Magic Maids
Working Witches
Sweeping Sisters
Brooming B*tches
With every sweep
We work it out
With every sweep
We break it off
We unsettle we untame
Our labour is our spell
We’re not that innocent
From east to west, north to south
Past to present then to now
See us come
Can you hear our sound?
Through the words of Xila Maria River Red
Maria River Red
River red
Red
Red
Spread
Spread
Spread the word
Spread the word
Spread the word
Get to work
Get to work
Work Work Work Work
– Eisa Jocson & Venuri Perera
Eisa Jocson
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 Boss Asia Art Award.
Venuri Perera
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 and 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) and 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.
4 Oct 2024, Fri
7.30pm
There will be a post-show dialogue.
5 Oct 2024, Sat
5pm
There will be a post-show dialogue.
6 Oct 2024, Sun
5pm
There will be a post-show dialogue.
Standard | Students, NSFs, Seniors & PWDs |
|
Price | $30 | $24 |
Standard Ticket
Concession Ticket
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Early Bird (18 – 31 Jul 2024)
Black & White: 20% savings
From 1 Aug 2024, 10am
Black & White: 15% savings
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Early Bird (18 – 31 Jul 2024)
Discover: 15% savings (Min. of 2 tickets)
From 1 Aug 2024, 10am
Discover: 10% savings (Min. of 2 tickets)
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Applicable to Standard Cat 1 tickets only. Terms and Conditions apply.
Tote Board Arts Grant
All Secondary Schools, Junior Colleges/ Centralised Institute & ITEs may use the Tote Board Arts Grant to subsidise up to 50% of the programme cost.
For more details, please contact Esplanade Box Office at 6828 8389 or email boxoffice@esplanade.com.
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