Interweaving ritual, pageantry, performance and possession, Magic Maids presents an encounter with two figures engaged in the ritual act of sweeping. The broom, a domestic tool for cleaning and the vehicle of the witch, becomes a symbol of both oppression and resistance. It is an extension of the body and a portal for metamorphosis. The art workers and their brooms exist in a continuous state of becoming.
Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera are from the Philippines and Sri Lanka respectively, two countries known for their significant export of domestic workers. Their collaboration began in 2022 when they noticed the absence of women at Basel Museum of Pharmaceutical History in Switzerland. This observation sparked their investigation of the historical persecution of witches; in Europe and its implications for the exploitation of female labour in colonised regions. They discovered that the accusation of witchcraft continues to be a tool for persecuting migrant workers from the Global South.
Magic Maids is a bodily response to their grappling with these complex entanglements. They call upon practices of incantation and intention, using their bodies to traverse multiple territories: physical, conceptual, transnational, emotional, and gendered. The labour in performance enables an embodied inquiry into questions of representation, political subjecthood and histories of oppression. Having individually presented solo work across international festivals and platforms that follows this line of inquiry, Jocson and Perera come together for the first time to sweep out and unsettle oppressive power structures. Rewilding the domestic, they aim to release, reclaim, rejoice, and reconnect with the primal energies.
Magic Maids is an invitation to witness and reflect on the visibility of the working body, the power of female solidarity, and the enduring impact of historical injustices on modern labour practices.
The Asian premiere of this production is presented as part of da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN), a weekend that spotlights contemporary dance works by Asian artists focusing on distinct voices and creative impulses from the region.
Production Credits
Concept, Creation, Dramaturgy, Performance: Eisa Jocson, Venuri Perera
Light Design: Ariana Battaglia
Sound Design: Soraya Bonaventure
Artistic Advice: Rasa Alksnyte
Text Advice: Ruhanie Perera
Spiritual Advice: Nenet Ocson Babaylan-Vaigaland
Outside Eyes and Ears: Arco Renz, Tang Fu Kuen
In-House Dramaturgical Support: Anna Wagner, Alexandra Hennig
Production Advice: Sandro Lunin
Technical Production: Seok Hui Yap
Producer: Katja Armknecht, Anne Kleiner
Production Management: Paula Elena Noack, Greta Katharina Klein
Magic Maids by Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera is a production of Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in co-production with Frascati Producties (supported by Ammodo), Tanzquartier Wien, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, Festival Theaterformen, DDD - Festival Dias da Dança, Kampnagel, Arsenic - Centre d’art scénique contemporian, 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 as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture. This project was supported with residences by Kaserne Basel, Puón Institute Philippines, Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka, Dance Nucleus in collaboration with Studio Plesungan as part of ARTEFACT Creative Residency and Colomboscope Contemporary Art Festival 2024.
With gratitude to the wonderful wise working women who generously shared their knowledge and stories with us.
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