A caress that is a grind that is a ripple that is a surge that is an embrace that is a swell that is a tidal archipelago of our shared horizons of our collective will
Joseph Funnell & Carlos Maria Romero (aka Atabey Mamasita)
Open call for paid opportunity: Online Movement Workshop for the Queer Caribbean Diaspora. Facilitated by London-based artists Joseph Funnell (UK/Jamaica) & Carlos Maria Romero aka Atabey Mamasita (Colombia)
22nd, 24th and 31st of October 2020.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.
As part of their forthcoming Cellular commission, to be launched on Cell Project Space’s website in early October, artists Joseph Funnell and Carlos Maria Romero will be leading a series of three accessible movement workshops, delivered digitally over Zoom. Using Caribbean rhythm to explore ideas of personal sensuality, these workshops pull from the legacies of marginalized bodies and queer communities in creating emancipatory technologies of pleasure. Together, the artists and participants will explore the power of dance, feeling sexy and feeling yourself as practices of self-care and resistance.
“This is an invitation for those who refuse to be alienated from their bodies by the historic project of white-supremacist, capitalist patriarchy, and the violence of a colonial project enacted across oceans. Together we will explore how the generative beats of Dancehall and Reggaeton harbour queerness in their syncopated accents, as a counterpoint to the heterosexualist and misogynistic lyrics that can accompany them. Unlocking the queer and feminist potential of these music genres, we will affirm our own desire for living a life of self-sustained joy without the need for external validation.”
Who should apply? Individuals of all ages and abilities who understand themselves as queer (within the LGBTQIA+ spectrum), and as diaspora of the wider Caribbean region, including its coasts.
To foster a space of trust and connection, the artists have limited the number of participants to seven people. We ask that you apply only if you can attend all three virtual workshops on the following dates:
Thursday 22nd October, 6 - 8 pm
Saturday 24th October, 11 am - 1 pm
Saturday 31st October, 11 am - 1 pm
The artists will aim to select a group representing a spectrum of interests in the most balanced way. “We will prioritise participants with less experience, less access, and those in stronger need of an affirmative practice in relation to the topics of the workshop.”
Remuneration: Funnell and Maria Romero believe in reallocating resources to those oppressed by colonial structures in order to challenge extractivist procedures in the art world/industry. As such, all participants will be remunerated for their time at a rate of London Living Wage, for a total of 6 hours (£65 will be paid to each participant).
How to apply? The artists invite anyone interested in applying to answer three short questions via our website form.
Deadline for applications is now closed. The selected participants will be contacted via email by end of day on Monday 12th of October.
Joseph Funnell is an interdisciplinary artist, dancer and activist of Afro-Caribbean and British descent. Working with movement, text, images and film their research-based practice considers the emancipatory potential of performing agency within contexts of historic negation. They have presented solo performance work at: Steakhouse Live, Slow Sunday, 2020; Slap Festival 2020; The Albany, London, 2019; CLAY, Leeds, 2019; and Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, 2018. As a dancer, Joseph has also collaborated with and performed for artists, including Adham Faramawy (Tate Britain, Somerset house, London Science Museum), Alex Baczynski-Jenkins (Whitechapel Galley, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), Pan Daijing (Tate Modern), and Ula Sickle (Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw).
Carlos Maria Romero aka Atabey Mamasita (Barranquilla, 1979), is a Colombian Caribbean multidisciplinary artist based between London and Margate working with dance, performance, visual arts, pedagogy, activism, cultural engineering and occasionally music and curating. He is founding member of SPIT! - Sodomites, Perverts, Inverts Together!, a collective who performs since 2017 (at Frieze Projects, London) a series of queer manifestos; and Vividero Colectivo, whose projects seek to reclaim marginalised social practices and architectural sites as cultural heritage. Maria Romero’s most recent performances HQ - (I Feel so Mezzaniney), a collaboration with Steven Warwick, and the series Muy Serio have been presented at Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Volksbühne Berlin, London Contemporary Music Festival, Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, Jupiter Artland in Edinburg and Montréal, Arts Interculturels among other places.
For more information about the project please contact Eliel Jones, Associate Curator , eliel@cellprojects.org.
Launched in June 2020, Cellular is a new experimental Live Art and Media-based programme comprising a multi-purpose ground floor event space at Cell Project Space and an online platform on Cell’s website. Originally conceived to run alongside the exhibitions programme at the gallery, Cellular launches six pilot commissions of on-site and digital works to be delivered with and without physical audiences between June - December 2020. To find out more, please click here.
Cellular is made possible with the generous support of an Emergency Grant by Arts Council England.
