TIRAN WILLEMSE

wpZimmer resident in 2021

Tiran is an artist, born in South-Africa, situated between Berlin and Zurich. His performance based practice explores the body inside an unimaginable environment. Using physical depth to create sonic images that deal with the construction of systems, creating experiences that communicate somatic and psychological landscapes beyond the human condition. He has worked and collaborated with Eszter Salamon, Jerome Bel, Trajal Harrell, Meg Stuart, Ligia Lewis, Andros Zins-Browne, Alex baczynski Jenkens, Dorotha Gaweda and Egle Kulbokaite (Young girl reading group), Price (Mathias Rinngenberg) and with Cullberg ballet under Deborah Hay and Jeftha Van Dinther.

projects

blackmilk:trompoppies

blackmilk is the first part of a trilogy titled trompoppies. Trompoppies is Afrikaans and describes drum majorettes performing a formation dance in uniform. blackmilk examines one of the choreographic elements of these dances: the precise hand gestures. By merging trompoppies movements with the melodramatic gestures of divas and the gestures associated with black male rap stars, the choreography investigates the distance between African and African American male identity. blackmilk invites a performative dimension into cultural representation of black masculinity and opens it up to a different complexity and sensitivity, which the artist describes as black male melancholia.

credits