The Guts (2022)
graphic, concept and performance
The character “the guts” and its performance is part of the project “The Goldfish Bleeding In A Sea of Shark” by Thais De Marco
A melancholy gut that has infinite stretches of area when it unfolds. It is often fragile but annoying, tangled around the edges of the stage and in a state of crisis, constantly on guard to see if it will fall off the edge. When I moved here from my hometown, my gut became very vulnerable, and it was linked to my anxiety, depression, feelings of failure, and to be precise, incompatible bacteria at work with this system. My mother used to scorch the wormwood above my upper body, while my father would blow out smoke on my abdomen to soothe my discomfort. All of which I used to avoid with disgust and antagonise. However, since leaving China, I have often traced this mythical form of therapy and thought about its relationship with me, in a way to resistance something.
The gut is an archive. Bearing a outside wound or pleasure, personal but structural. When I have to consider the situation of my non-EU VISA, it begins to be chaotic and unsettling, fleeing within the vessel of the body, pushing out excrement with a myriad of corrupted imaginations. For me, art is real labour, and it takes more time than the market can quantify: I bounce around from open call to open call, submitting proposals, so the other side of its labour is the time-consuming labour for generating money unrelated art. It is for supporting that part of art that has no financial return. But the artist's cunning also lies in trying to make such labour an art. In this case, the body's response is very real, it is the foundation of artistic labour, but somehow independent, giving embarrassing feedback, It is a coward, burn out, and desperately clings on the market.
About the project The Goldfish Bleeding In A Sea Of Sharks:
In 2022 and 2023, artist Thais Di Marco and WORM explore The Goldfish Bleeding in a Sea of Sharks – Wrestling Club. A series of artistic actions that reflect and react to the current impacts of Neoliberalism and Neo Liberal ideology in the art market, changing and conditioning the social role of art marking. The project is composed of a performance piece, a series of panels, NTFs and web art investigation, a research trip, a radio show, a short movie and counts with an extensive team of artists engaged in thinking about potential political intersections to either reform or destroy the neoliberal art market as a major totem of white supremacy, heteropartriacalism and colonial domination.
The motto of the piece is the Lucha Libre, a Latin American form of wrestling where social characters can fight. The cups are not necessarily violent themselves, but the entertainment of the show relies on the multi layers of the event and, above all, on the support the fighters can get from the audience. In our show, the artists will fight against each other, for the price of having the most successful business model in the world, repeating neoliberal lies such as meritocracy, talent and selection processes.
Director: Thais Di Marco
Dramaturg: Felizitas Stilleke
Artists: Avantika Tibrewal (Tikka), Qiaochu Guo , Tom Pacheco , Diego Oliveira and guests.
Costumes: Draga Dina
Scenery: Roxy Capriles
Panel Organizer: Chihiro Geuzebroek
DJs: Parisa Madani and Anna Luna
Makeup by: Eugene
Graphic design and Visual identity Natalia Papaieva, Francisca Ponta Negra and Sofia Lobo
NFTs: Tommaso Buldini
Reflections: Anahí Herera and Performing Borders
Party Co-organizer: Lucía
Professors/ trainers: Diego Oliveira, David Klaber, Roxanne Foxy, James Rae Parnell.
Production: Charlien Adriaenssens
Videos by: Werner van der Zwan and Francisca Ponta Negra
Many thanks to: Janpier Brands, Evelien van de Sanden, Milone Reigman, Alex Bloom, Clara Saito, Raoni Joyan Saleh, Marina Orlova, Elise de Leede, Seven and father Odú Obará.
Pictures by:
Thomas Lenden, David Cenzer , Julia Gat
Video registration at FLAM by Francisca Ponta Negra
Project supported by AFK, FONDS21, Het Makers Kapitaal and has partnership with FLAM Festival, Het Huis Utrecht, Welcome to the Village and others.