The Goldfish Bleeding – Modes of production 16 March – 16 April 2022
The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks – Wrestling Club was in production at WORM from 16th of March until 16th of April, 2022.
Director Thais Di Marco: Project @thegoldfishbleeding
In the Goldfish’s own words:
I’m The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks. I’ve been bleeding: it’s been a while but I still survive. Maybe some parts of my body have already disintegrated but I finally found the most successful and ambitious business model in the world! To do that I read all the motivational quotes in Instagram profiles and best sellers on how to make a profitable art project for 10 years in a row and I slept three hours per night… and it’s possible, I want you to believe that you are special! I got all the funds and had great coffee with all the curators and now I became extremely famous on the internet. I got rid of all my fears and insecurities, and all feelings in general and I had a revelation of a pyramidal business model coming down from the sky, opening the door for me to enter. Inside of it I saw a shell with a pearl in it, it said: “Just do it.”
Welcome to the NEOLIBERAL ERA where you can fight to WIN!
The project was sponsored by AFK, FONDS21 and Het Maker Kapitaal. It was a co-production with WORM and encapsulated a series of artistic actions, including performance piece, a talent show, panels, NFT art, a research trip, a short movie and parties.
The project was based in part on Lucha Libre, a Latin American form of wrestling and entertainment that, through its live iteration in WORM, in turn triggered questions around art-making in these neoliberal times. Questions were posed: “What is the influence of social media, alt-right movements and radical forms of gore capitalism in the life of artists and cultural workers? How do they influence potential social roles of art-making and the organisation of its resources? What happened to political discourses in the post-truth era? How is this ultimate form of radical capitalism influencing the type of art we make, and for what interests?”
Through techniques of improvisation in theatre, dance and humour, Goldfish… navigated slogans, social debates and other pressures that currently suffocate artists and prevent organisations from experimenting with what art could become as a futuristic technology – in the struggle for the permanence of various people(s) and The Earth in opposition to cultural homogenisation and extinction.
Thais di Marco is a Brazilian artist living in The Netherlands. They are specialised in social projects of art democracy, as a choreographer and teacher. In their personal work, they present provocative, sensual, engaged and humorous art.
