Event description
In DARKMATTER, artist Cherish Menzo, her onstage partner Camilo Mejía Cortés and the ten-member Distorted Rap Choir seek to free their bodies and the everyday life they move through from the trap of preconceived notions.
The name DARKMATTER is derived from the astronomical phenomenon of dark matter and refers to the colour of the skin of the artists' bodies. The incomprehensible dark matter stimulates curiosity. It is almost invisible, just as dark matter is invisible in certain societies.
"DARKMATTER" wants to get rid of the biased view of our own and other's bodies - as well as the stories we attribute to them. Cherish Menzo throws her own body into the fray, which starts a complex conversation that she wants to both engage in and transcend, talking about the duality that feeds DARKMATTER.
"In this new project, I want to further shift and disconnect my personal perspective on the stories associated with the dark body and blackness. Is there room to dream, rethink and redraw this body? Can this process be disconnected from historical and existing ways of thinking, or are these fertile seeds that I should take with me into my working process? Finally, how do I open up this research and turn it into a collective narrative?" - Cherish Menzo.
Cherish Menzo (b. 1988, The Netherlands) is a performing artist and choreographer based in Amsterdam and Brussels. Her work is interested in the transformation of the body on stage and the "embodiment" of different physical images. At first glance, the images seem recognisable, but by highlighting their complexity and contradictions, Cherish questions the assumed norm and creates universes in which the black body takes centre stage. She navigates between the nostalgia of 1990s and 21st century hip-hop, industrial hip-hop, rap lyrics, science fiction, manga and speculative futures. Using these elements as tools, she gives form and materialises - strange, mysterious forms and realities.
Concept and performance by Camilo Mejía Cortés and Cherish Menzo
Lighting design by Niels Runderkamp
Music composition by Gagi Petrovic and Michael Nunes
Score design by Gagi Petrovic and Michael Nunes
Costume design by JustTatty.Daniël Bonsu and Shari Kok-Sey-Tjong
Scenography by Morgana Machado Marques
Dramaturgy by Renée Copraij
Singing and Vocal Coaches: Benjamin Kahn, Christian Yav and Nicole Geertruida
Practitioner: Pauline Van Nuffel
Production: GRIP, Frascati Producties
Production Partners: Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels, Belgium), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l'accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (France), actoral festival (Marseille, France), STUK (Leuven, BE), La Villette (Paris, France), Festival d'Automne à Paris (France), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, Belgium), Perpodium (Belgium)
Residency: STUK (Louvain, Belgium), La Villette (Paris, France), Frascati (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, Belgium), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille dans le cadre de l'accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture (France)
Collaboration with: Trill (Louvain, Belgium), WijzijnDOX (Utrecht, The Netherlands), De Coproducers (The Netherlands)
Financial support: the Flemish Government, the Performing Arts Foundation (The Netherlands),the Belgian Federal Government's tax authority and Cronos Invest."
Photos by Yema Gieskes, Mélanie Musisi.
