Extraordinary Lucha Libre Wrestling Show Series at WORM!
The most extraordinary wrestling show, The Goldfish Bleeding in a See of Sharks will play in Rotterdam! From 14th – 17th September, Director Thais Di Marco & WORM invite you to a four-day event featuring spectacular performances, intriguing workshops and a Queer Brazilian Club Night.
In The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks – Wrestling Club, choreographer and theater director Thais di Marco reacts and reflects on the consequences of neoliberal thinking in the art market. This ideology, in which corruption, white supremacy and patriarchy are rampant, often means the end of local cultures and rituals. To visualize the impact of this, Di Marco has been inspired by the traditional wrestling sport Lucha Libre, an important part of Latin American pop culture. In a whirlwind wrestling show, different artists compete against each other in the battle for the most successful business model in the world. Will they succeed in reforming or even destroying the neoliberal art market?
In 2022, Thais has been developing three unique versions of the wrestling shows which will be played at WORM. Every day the show unpacks a different aspect of Neoliberalism.
FULL PROGRAMME:
14th SEP
KICK OFF WORKSHOP – Writing performative manifestos
facilitated by Anahi Saravia Herrera & Jemima Young
19h – 22h – FREE
We kick off the festival with a collective manifesto session guided by curator and writer Anahi Herrera. In the first part of the workshop, we will revisit recent artistic manifestos that had a political impact on the legacy of art making and social transformation. In the second part of the workshop, we will collectively create a new manifesto that will be read during the first wrestling performance of the festival.
15th SEP| Fight 1
The Goldfish x The World Ending
Wrestling Performance
21h – 22h
On our first wrestling night, the artists are invited to fight for their immigration rights, transparency on the Dutch artistic visa process and the replacement of “diversity” for “equity”. Don’t miss this epic fight! Special guest: Will Greta Tumblr finally defeat The Climate Change?!
16th SEP | Fight 2
The Goldfish x Decolonising The Netherlands
Wrestling Performance
21h – 22h
In this evening the artists will fight to stop professional retaliation against decolonial activists demanding structural change in the art institutions.
Special Guest: Sinterklass will fight for his eternal supremacy.
CLUB NIGHT
Queer Brazil x Club Night – The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks
Thais Di Marco invites Brazilian queens of Funk, Brega and Reggaeton.
17th SEP | Fight 3
The Goldfish x Patriarchy
In this evening: Will the Goldfish bleeding be defeated by the entitlement of white cis men perpetuating their power positions. Friends with special Voguing Super Powers will join and try to help us win the fight!
Confirmed Opponent: Jh0nny De3p
TICKETS
Each performance has a pre-sale ticket of € 7 & Student tickets for € 5. Come to see it all with a special Combo discount of € 17 for all three performances. Tickets for the party are sold separetley at € 5 per ticket. The kick off workshop is free, just join the facilitators at the set time.
Psst: If you join the kick off workshop you will receive a free ticket for the wrestling fight and the party on the 16th of September!
Tickets 15 Sep // Tickets 16 Sep // Club tickets 16 Sep // Tickets 17 Sep
THAIS DI MARCO
Thais Di Marco (they) is a theatre director and choreographer specialised in art production in contexts under conditions of violence, with 15 years of practice in performing arts and cultural politics. Thais spent 6 years as a teacher of projects at Brasiliândia Cultural Center, the only theatre in a neighbourhood with one of the highest rates of state genocide in Latin America. Later, she shared her research in different contexts such as Ocupa Ouvidor, the biggest cultural squat of the Americas, in the festival Les Echos de Lobozunkpá in West Africa and at the space Bongah in Iran, on power issues, and worked in social programs for the democratisation of the arts. Thais studied Lucha Libre at the Escuela Arena México. Currently they work with partners to either reform or destroy the art market as a totem of neoliberalism, corruption, cosmological violence, heteropatriarchalism and white supremacy. Her first artistic education in contemporary art was within social projects led by artists to think about how art could play a central role in democracy in countries under conditions of extreme violence. In their work, they present provocative, sensual, engaged and humorous art.
To get to know the artist:
https://linktr.ee/thaisdimarco
This performance series was realised with the support of WORM, AFK, FONDS21 and Het Makers Kapitaal and with the cooperation of, among others, FLAM Festival, Het Huis Utrecht , Framer Framed, Welcome to the Village.
If you are in for a deep dive, you can learn more about the process behind the work HERE.