London-based performance company There There is in residency at ODD between 1-7 November. During their stay, they will be expanding Trigger Warning, a participatory installation which contests stereotypes about Eastern European immigrants. In Bucharest, they are planning to collaborate with a group of former Romanian immigrants – together they will develop a new game for the installation, exploring participants’ experience of economic and class stereotyping encountered in Romania after a period of living and working in Western Europe. Participants will present the new piece to audiences at a final event, using the game to prompt wider conversations on emigrant identities.
The project will contribute to creating a community of former immigrants, a growing demographic in Romanian society that is primarily discussed in economic terms. In inviting the participants to co-author a new piece, and presenting it to local audiences, the project creates space for an emerging group to identify and self-advocate.
This residency comes after a similar project conducted at the Center for Art on Migration Politics (CAMP) in Copenhagen, where There There collaborated with four Eastern European immigrant women to create a game illustrating migrant exclusion in Denmark. Together, the ODD and CAMP projects mark the start of a long-term initiative by There There: a series of international inquiries into Eastern European identity, the different forms it takes across the continent, and the ways it interferes with both national identities and the daily lives of (former) immigrants.
Biography
There There
There There are Dana Olărescu and Bojana Janković, a 50% Romanian, 50% Serbian, London-based performance company. Their work explores immigration, national identities and exclusion, focuses on marginalised Eastern European minorities in Western Europe, and uses participation to create inclusive, alternative debates on immigration. There There have shown work across the UK and internationally, and developed pieces for major institutions including Tate Modern and the Museum of London.