The most extraordinary wrestling show, The Goldfish Bleeding in a See of Sharks will play in Rotterdam! 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.
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.
ALSO PART OF THE PROGRAMME:
14th Sep | Kick Off workshop
Writting Manifestos with Anahi Saravia Herrera, Jemima Young & Performaning Boarders | 19h – 22h
15th SEP| Fight 1
Wrestling Performance – The Goldfish x The World Ending | 21h – 22h
CLUB NIGHT
Queer Brazil x Club Night – The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks | Funk, Brega, Reggeaton
17th SEP | Fight 3
Wrestling Performance The Goldfish x Patriarchy | 21h – 22h
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.