Venuri Perera and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke
Filmscreening
THURSDAY 19.12.2024 / 18.30/ Duration 30min

Porcelain White
Venuri Perera and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, born oceans apart in 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, that protect their social status. Conversing across continents, they probe their complicity. In this film, they unravel the complexities and limits of their inherited privilege as they inhabit neocolonial spaces.

Venuri Perera
Venuri Perera is a choreographer, performance artist, curator, and educator based in Amsterdam. Exploring the power dynamics of visibility and opacity, she attempts to disorient how we perceive the „other.“ She subverts frameworks of existing rituals to create alternate dramaturgies. She works with found objects and is curious about space and place. Perera’s solo and collaborative works deal with violent nationalism, patriarchy, border rituals, colonial heritage, and class. They have been in festivals and biennales across Europe, South and East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa since 2010.

A graduate of DAS (Arts) Theatre, Perera has an MA in Clinical Psychology (Pune, India). She was a member of the Chitrasena Dance Company and a founding member of The Packet Collective. Perera conceived and curated the programs of the Colombo Dance Platform (2016-20, Goethe-Institut), and is committed to creating support networks for the independent dance scene in Sri Lanka.

Zwoisy Mears – Clarke
Zwoisy Mears-Clarke currently resides in Rösrath and views himself as a choreographer of the encounter. Zwoisy makes use of the potential in dance to make forms of oppression like neo-colonialism, sexism and ableism visible and to enable encounters that would be impossible under any other conditions. The performances often take place at unconventional sites or also outdoors. Through the transition between spoken languages and languages of movement and through putting the proscenium to good use, Zwoisy Mears-Clarke’s choreographies offer the opportunity to meet oneself and other people anew.