CALLOUT FOR ARTISTS NOW OPEN!
FIRST DRAFTS is an experiment in collective curating - a series of work-in progress presentations organised by PROJEKT EUROPA’s artistic advisory board. Each evening will include new work in development by 6-8 migrant artists or collectives and will be framed by a quote, offering a thematic lens for experiencing the work.
We’re now looking for migrant artists who would like to share a piece of work in development on January 23rd 2025 at the New Diorama in London.
The quote for January is by Octavia Butler:
“The very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope.”
Where afrofuturism is sometimes defined as ‘imagining possible futures through a black cultural lens’, we are wondering - can you imagine possible futures through a migrant lens?
Deadline for applications is November 10th - we can’t wait to hear from you!
Our first evening of work-in-progress presentations took place at New Diorama Theatre in London on September 15th 2024. The quote for the evening was ‘This Is How An Artist Resists’- prompting artists and audience alike to consider how artists experience, perceive and express resistance.
These are the artists who took part:
Saili Katebe is a writer, performer and workshop facilitator. Born in Zambia and now based in the South West of England, his work celebrates language and the power of story. Divija Melally is a trained contemporary and Indian classical dancer, dedicated to the arts, and spreading the intricate nuances of dance through performance, teaching, choreography and therapy.
‘Six Degrees from Home’ is an interdisciplinary exploration around the various borders, boundaries and barriers that we have created in society. These “invisible lines” have been used as a tool to divide one single species based on race, nationality, religion, language, education, gender, and other innumerable divisions. As we progress towards the future, some barriers are being broken, while some invisible lines are transforming into powerful and oppressive creatures.
As a duet, the work plays with the idea of making and breaking borders with our bodies, and how this translates into contact and movement. As artists originating from India and Zambia, we are also privy to the bureaucratic struggles of crossing borders and the value given to documents like passports which are merely pieces of paper. The work hopes to encapsulate our experiences and the experiences of communities across the world.’
Néa Ishana Ranganathan is a genderqueer land-based sculptor, DIY live artist and anti-colonial organiser of Tamil-British descent from Boston, MA. Their artistic and academic practice centres on iterative, durational and site-specific work focusing on the documentation of Tamil homeland. She curates spaces and interventions around grief work with a focus on Palestinian Liberation as Campaign Officer for the South London anti-imperialist collective, Built On Blood.
‘‘The Execution of a Tiger Woman’ is a solo land-based sculptural and live/performance art piece. It combines audio, spoken text, water, clay, ash, salt and pottu (a powder symbolising a married Tamil woman). By documenting my poetry alongside past, present and future Tamil artists and academics, I am resisting the eradication of our people and homeland. This piece will explore four scores: salt, ash, clay and water. Each score is paired with text, material and audio which unpacks a theme of resistance to execution.
Tsoi Huen Wong is a physical performer, maker, practitioner and improviser who works across the spectrum of performing arts, spanning from theatre, dance and participatory context. She draws practices from contact improvisation, Gaga Movement language, and the Frantic Method. Christiano Mere is a researcher, writer, artist, movement artist, and art technician from Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (BR). His work explores the world through gaps—between activities, actions, materials, and time. He holds an MA in Sculpture from the University of Lisbon (PT) and a BA in Graphic Design from UNESA, Rio de Janeiro (BR).
“Anticlockwise” utilises anticlockwise circular movements to explore the meaning of resisting entropy, resisting the draining of life that insists on moving towards the less complex. Anticlockwise is the movement of producing complexities and, as such, strategies against the diminishment of existence.
By sharing our practices, we realised that the circular gesture underpins both practices despite their different structures. Therefore, “Anticlockwise” appears as a physical exploration of the unformed similarities of these practices and with them the essence of the gesture of resistance.
Rieckhof-Silva is an interdisciplinary collective exploring movement and costume relationships, Peruvian rituals, and tradition. Carolina Rieckhof combines sculpture and costume with movement to explore the human emotional experience, while Moyra Silva integrates performance, visual arts, and movement focusing on body-place relationships, and intercultural dynamics.
"Uproar" is an interdisciplinary performance exploring the right to protest and the power of collective action. A journey from injustice to hope, powered by unity. Blending rebellious dance, unique sonorous costumes, and archival audiovisuals, it honours the Latin American tradition of using music and dance as political expression. Created in response to the deaths of 50 civilians in Peru (2022-2023), "Uproar" sheds light on Peru's ongoing crisis—rooted in unresolved colonial issues like discrimination, racism, and classism. It raises awareness of peaceful protests and invites audiences to sound together in a collective call for social justice, fostering empathy and solidarity in facing these global challenges. The performance explores a link between contemporary protests and ancestral indigenous movements against oppression, such as Taki Onqoy, movement of anticolonial resistance involving dance and music to restore the pre-Hispanic culture.’
Jana Aizupe is a working-class theatre artist primarily working through devising, movement, and film. She was born and raised in Latvia, where her first encounter with performance was through many years of training and studying movements familiar to street dance.
Jana has a deep interest in the current systems of labour. Her devised work 1001 based on the theme of burnout has been awarded Warwick University Research prize 2021, performed at Omnibus Theatre and Camden People’s Theatre. The short film adaptation has been selected for Take A Bite Festival with China Plate. Her other performance works like dreaming of you, get me out of here and enchilada have been presented at Emergency and Haphazard Festivals in Manchester. In addition to performance making, Jana is also working as applied theatre practitioner.
‘‘if I stay here any longer I will stay here forever’ is a meditation on inability to begin. The feeling of being stuck, frozen in the state of preparation.
That feeling when you keep making coffee thinking “ok, I will make coffee and then I will start”, “ok I will go for a walk and then I will start”.
It is about the act of preparing to do something and not being able to stop preparing. Never reaching the doing.’
Emilia Nurmukhamet (she/they) is a queer migrant theatre maker, performer and creative facilitator. Emilia's work focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to performance: combining live sound, digital media and performance art alongside focusing on autobiographical and documentary style writing. Dear Annie (they/she) is a queer transdisciplinary artist, Dance Movement Psychotherapist and co-founder of Mud Summons Records, using dance, music and spoken word to weave binary-melting stories with autobiographical beginnings.
‘GIVE OR TAKE (GoT) is an interactive multidisciplinary performance exploring gift-giving as an act of celebration, alongside unpacking moments when ‘gifts’ are employed as a contract and a transaction. Fusing clown, dance-theatre and live music, GoT invites audiences into a surreal re-enactment of their favourite gifts, as we ask: can anything ever come for free?
Throughout GoT, the live electronic sound score supports a danced & spoken narrative that foregrounds a queer & migrant intersectional experience. Drawing on the rich history of Tatar diaspora, GoT creatively integrates Tatar mythology, reclaiming histories from the oppression of ethnic and indigenous peoples, centering resistance whilst offering a queer critique of oppressive and imperialist bargains.’
Each FIRST DRAFTS is followed by a Q&A with the artists and members of the PROJEKT EUROPA Artistic Advisory Board, reflecting on the work itself, the process of curating, and on the reality of being a migrant theatre maker right now.
FIRST DRAFTS is a unique snapshot of the extraordinary creativity and diversity of migrant performance in the UK - don’t miss your chance to be part of this vital conversation.
all photos by Ewa Emini