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Medea/Becoming British

  • Show duration: 45 mins
  • Number in company: 1
  • Get-in time: 3 hours
  • Type of work/venue/location: Small, Black box
  • Available to tour: September 08

The exploration of the Medea myth, abject maternal, dissent and bad citizenship.

Medea/Becoming British is a subversive take on the maternal, foreignness and citizenship.

A new critical feminist intervention, provoked by the birth of Lena’s third baby boy, his dual citizenship (Croatian and British) and Lena’s impending acquisition of British citizenship - a follow up performance from Medea/Mothers’ Clothes (Bluecoat 2004) and Sid Jonah Anderson by Lena Simic (2008).

This solo performance will juxtapose Lena’s contemplative daily labour of mothering with barbarian Medea and a critical investigation into the legal processes of Becoming British. Through her arts practice Lena hopes to confront and critically intervene into her own Foreignness. The private and the familial are questioned in the light of the public and the civic.

The performance includes sound installation, video footage and live action.

nb. Video clip features video material in the making and a clip from Medea/Mothers’ Clothes solo performance (Bluecoat 2004).

Lena Simic

Lena Simic, performance artist, born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, living in Liverpool, UK. Trained in theatre directing/acting at Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia and London Academy of Performing Arts. Recently completed practice as research PhD ‘(Dis)Identifying Female Archetypes in Live Art’ at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts at Lancaster University.

Currently spending her time with her new baby boy Sid, contemplating the maternal, dissent, bad citizenship and devising a live art event centred round Sid’s bathtime/bedtime.

Also developing a solo performance inspired by the character of Masha Serghyeevna from Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

Recent solo performances Medea/Mothers’ Clothes, Magdalena Makeup and Joan Trial, a series of interventions into female archetypal figures, question contemporary assumptions about motherhood, the ‘naming’ of Others and heroism.

Lena has collaborated with Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool, Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster, Art Workshop Lazareti in Dubrovnik and toured her performances nationally and internationally. Her work has been presented at the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow, Leeds Met Studio Theatre, V&A Museum, Odin Teatret in Denmark, Teatro Guinol in Santa Clara, Cuba amongst others.

Video

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Gallery

[Show picture list]

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