Porcelain White: The Conversation

Zwoisy Mears-Clarke and Venuri Perera, both born several oceans apart in Jamaica and Sri Lanka, both former colonies of Britain, find that they have in common a ‘whitened’ inheritance. They were both brought up in the English-speaking middle class, which maintains certain practices adopted from the former colonial masters, to protect their social status. Conversing across continents, the artists probe their complicity. In Porcelain White: The Conversation they unravel the complexities and limits of their inherited privilege as they inhabit neocolonial spaces.

Zwoisy Mears-Clarke is a choreographer of the encounter. Zwoisy uses the expanded potentiality of dance to confront forms of oppression such as neocolonialism, sexism and ableism to open encounters that might otherwise seem unreachable. Zwoisy is currently based in Rösrath, NRW. Venuri Perera is a choreographer and performance artist from Colombo. Her works have dealt with violent nationalism, patriarchy, border politics and the power dynamics of gaze. She is interested in the power of vulnerability, and creating conditions for empathy.

Duration: 30 min. / in English with German sign language done by deaf interpreters and German subtitles