8 December, 17:30
The performance will take place in the exhibition “Decolonial Ecologies. Understanding the Postcolonial after Socialism” at Riga Art Space
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE:
The region that we now call the Caribbean has never ceased being a place of refusal. Refusing colonial knowledge extraction and destruction. Refusing patriarchal family conceptions and contraptions. And refusing to abandon collectivity and solidarity. This refusal has fueled different types of mobilizations and organizations in the region and has been been utilized for a variety of ends. From fleeing plantations to parading in extraordinary costumes on the streets.
It is in this regard that people have found collective ways to champion for their existence despite the barrage of violence unleashed on them. In the stories retold of fights against economic exploitation the role of women however seems to be underrepresented. When the UN designated 1975 to 1985 to be the Decade of Women the University of the West Indies established the Women and Development Unit (WAND) at the university and initiated the program The Project for the Development of Caribbean Women in Trade Union in 1982. One of the participants of that inaugural cohort of women was Glenda Martinus, a member of the artist collective Family Connection.
For Decolonial Ecologies, Martinus and her two sons, Jörgen and Quinsy Gario, will present a performance that reflects on refusal, labour organizing as a Caribbean woman and solidarity across language barriers. Through a tapestry of storytelling, sonic soundscapes and spoken word the family of artists will show pathways to escape.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Glenda Martinus (Curaçao/The Netherlands) is a poet, singer, potter, glass sculptor, painter and new media artist whose work centers on upcyclying of material and technologies. She has a background in the Caribbean labour movement and women's movement. In 2010 she won the innovation award for her work at the Chianciano Art Biennale. Her work has been shown in St. Maarten, Curaçao, The Netherlands, Denmark, France and Great Britain.
Jörgen Gario (St. Maarten/Curaçao/The Netherlands) is a performance poet, singer-songwriter, beat producer and workshop facilitator. Combining spoken word and music he explores the energy of melody and poetry as one. He is a founding member of Poetry Circle Nowhere, the first performance poetry collective of the The Netherlands. He has performed in among other places Belgium, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Tanzania, Sweden and South Africa.
Quinsy Gario (Curaçao/St. Maarten/The Netherlands) is a performance poet and visual artist who focuses on decolonial remembering and disruption. His most well known work ‘Zwarte Piet Is Racisme’ critiqued the racist Dutch practice of Black Pete. He is a member of State of L3, a 2017/2018 BAK fellow and Humanity In Action Senior Fellow. He was awarded among other prizes the Royal Academy Master Thesis Prize 2017, the Black Excellence Award 2016 and together with Glenda Martinus and Jörgen Gario won the Amsterdam Fringe Festival Silver Award 2015.
The event is part of the international project Islands of Kinship: A Collective Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions, co-funded by the European Union and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.