The Yams Deserve Better

About the Performance

Who can stay – under what conditions and in which community? 

“This residency is centered on the question of what it concretely means to stay here under conditions of political and social exclusion. We are exploring how people that are subject to exclusionary rhetorical and structural racism shape their daily lives. What routines, gestures and relationships provide them with stability? Where do ruptures and resistance become visible? We will start by employing listening practices in the public spaces of Mannheim’s T and S quadrants, as we understand these areas to be spaces of social resonance. It is here that we encounter the community whose practices of everyday life are the focus of our project – in conversations, pathways, glances and moments of belonging and exclusion.

Within the framework of this residency, we will collect an intentionally curated selection of short audio and video clips in which people speak about the everyday experiences of staying here. Perhaps it is a particular path taken, a greeting, a movement, a phrase or a secure place that is documented. The goal is to form an archive that can be collected within three weeks. These collected voices will constitute a community audio format that can flow into the performance as a soft soundscape, not to explain anything, but to render an audible presence of the community. 

At the same time, the performers will compile a physical archive. During ‘community walks,‘ people will demonstrate gestures and movements that represent staying here for them in the form of postures, daily actions, dance movements or rhythms. These fragments will also be collected and condensed into a choreography that can be bodily translated. The performers‘ work is based on the body and is improvisational and documentary – performance will turn into a practice of the present, resistance and belonging.” (Oré Arts e. V.) 

About the Artists

Oré Arts e. V. has been working for seven years to increase the visibility and recognition of Black people in the arts and culture. Its aim is to combat structural racism and promote empowerment through artistic and cultural forms of expression. Oré Arts offers a platform to Black artists to make their identity, history and experiences visible. Their work is interdisciplinary and combines art mediation, community work and political education from a consistently decolonial perspective.

What can you expect?

An experiential space filled with many voices, where everyday gestures, pathways and voices form a living archive of staying here. 

Cast & Credits

Janaína de Oliveira Gerdemann / mix media artist and performer / Heidelberg
Isabella Schroth / performer and store manager / Mannheim 
Betelihem Fisshaye / performer and educator / Heidelberg
Sandra Oliveira / theater pedagogic and performer / Heidelberg

https://www.ore-arts.de 

The residency for Oré Arts e. V. has been made possible through a cooperation with zeitraumexit. 

_{Photo © Guilherme Cavalli}