Magic Maids
Both archetypal female figures, “the witch” and “the maid”, are two poles of the same misogynistic matrix – despised and feared at the same time. In a solemn and sly incantation, “Magic Maids” demystifies the many ways in which the history of European witch-hunts intertwines with global networks of care work and the exploitation of the colonised female body. International artists Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera have collected the literally unheard stories of care workers in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, the echoes of which now haunt their bodies. “Magic Maids” is both a ritual and a dance performance: by embodying the ambivalent female figures, the dancers pledge themselves and the audience to fighting against the invisibility of care work and structures that despise women. In an evening of dance, magic and struggle, the broom no longer symbolises oppression, but feminist resistance.
Production: Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Frascati Producties (unterstützt durch Ammodo), Tanzquartier Wien, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, Festival Theaterformen, DDD - Festival Dias da Dança, Kampnagel, Arsenic - Centre d’art scénique contemporain, La briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne, Points Communs - nouvelle scène nationale Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise, Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. Funded within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and by the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and the Arts. Supported by: Kaserne Basel, Puón Institute Philippines, Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka, Dance Nucleus Singapore, Studio Plesungan Indonesia, Colomboscope Contemporary Art Festival 2024.