May - July 2020 — Perfomance Arts

Jessica Huber works as an artist in the field of the performing arts and is a founding member of mercimax, a theatre group and performance installation collective, based in Zürich. Over the past several years her work has been focusing on practices of exchange, sharing and collaboration – and on how to create spaces where different voices can coexist next to each other – not just as an inspiration, but as a radical (artistic & social) practice from which different formats and aesthetics emerged.

Jessica has been collaborating with James Leadbitter aka the vacuum cleaner on a long-term project called The art of a culture of hope / Tender provocations of hope and fear which addresses two key concerns: how do we deal with fear, understand its causes and effects on us?; and how can we create a space for potential, a space maybe for something like “hope”? Jessica works with curiosity and has a special interest in the texture of relationships and in how we function as individuals in society. She regularly gives workshops to professionals and non-professionals and has created dance pieces with elderly people.

For the first part of her residency in the context of the Home Not Alone residency programme, Jessica will be working with South African multi-disciplinary artist and dramaturge Lindiwe Matshikiza. Jessica explains: “We decided to first of all encounter each other, despite the distance and doing this during the next few weeks through a series of exchanges and sharing: Rituals of Tenderness, Rituals of Caring (Critical Care), playful formats and protocols adapted to the restrictions, reflecting on deep listening and possible spaces where different voices can co-exist next to each other (who’s voices?) and “vulner-ability” – sharing the ability to be vulnerable.”

CRITICAL FRIEND

Lindiwe Matshikiza is an artist working mainly with performance, directing and writing. She uses her background and training in theatre-making as a base from which to approach other kinds of work; often collaborative, exploratory projects that take on more than one form over time.