Simone Dede Ayivi:
Queens
Queens
Every continent still has matriarchal societies – except for Europe. Queens is an interdisciplinary, afrofeminist performance that researches concepts of gender and family outside of Western patriarchy. Within a museum of stolen ideas, we search for answers to the oldest of questions: Who are we? And how do we want to live?
CONZEPT, PERFORMANCE Simone Dede Ayivi VIDEOPERFORMANCE Efia Aikins STAGE, COSTUMES Elisabeth Gers MAKE-UP Adriana Metzlaff LIGHT DESIGN Rosa Wernecke SOUND, MUSIC Katharina Pelosi VIDEO Johanna Seitz ASSISTANCE Jenifa Simon INTERN Sarah Schmidt MANAGEMENTehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
Produced by Simone Dede Ayivi und Kompliz*innen in co-operation with Mousonturm and SOPHIENSÆLE. Funded by the senate department for culture and Europe. Media partners: Jungle World, Missy Magazine, taz.die tageszeitung, Zitty Berlin
Photo © Clarita Maria
Simone Dede Ayivi developed performances with her accomplices in cooperation with the Sophiensæle, the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt and the Festival Theaterformen. Among others, she directed at the Schauspielhaus Graz and the Theater Oberhausen. In 2022 she received the Tabori Award of the Fonds Darstellende Künste. Ayivi's performances discuss issues of representation, resistance, and community. Her works are curious, primarily interview-based research projects that bring search movements to the stage in a technically playful way, with an open use of theatrical means.