Artist in Residence
Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera
1 – 10 July 2024
Residensi Eisa Jocson dan Venuri Perera di Studio Plesungan merupakan bagian dari rangkaian residensi ARTEFACT#10, yang didukung oleh Dance Nucleus. Selama masa tinggal mereka di Studio Plesungan, kedua seniman melanjutkan pengembangan karya “Magic Maids“, sebuah proyek pertunjukan yang menelusuri sejarah dan kondisi kontemporer eksploitasi pekerja rumah tangga migran.
Magic Maids membangun hubungan konseptual antara perburuan penyihir dalam sejarah Eropa dan kerja domestik modern—dua medan kekerasan yang, meskipun terpisah secara waktu dan konteks, sama-sama ditandai oleh kontrol atas tubuh perempuan, ketakutan terhadap yang asing, serta kerja perawatan yang tidak terlihat dan tidak diakui. Dalam proyek ini, kerja domestik dipahami bukan sekadar sebagai aktivitas sehari-hari, melainkan sebagai medan politik yang sarat relasi kuasa, kelas, gender, dan migrasi.
Selama residensi, Eisa dan Venuri akan melakukan lokakarya serta wawancara dengan pekerja rumah tangga migran asal Filipina dan Sri Lanka, sebagai bagian dari proses riset berbasis tubuh dan pengalaman hidup. Pertemuan-pertemuan ini menjadi ruang pertukaran pengetahuan yang sensitif, di mana narasi personal, gestur kerja, dan ingatan tubuh diperlakukan sebagai arsip hidup yang membentuk struktur artistik karya.
Residensi ini juga berfungsi sebagai fase penting dalam persiapan pemutaran perdana “Magic Maids” yang akan dipresentasikan dalam program Connect Asia Now di Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapura. Di Studio Plesungan, karya ini dikembangkan sebagai proses terbuka—melalui eksplorasi gerak, diskusi, dan dialog dengan konteks lokal.
Sebagai bagian dari keterlibatan publik, Eisa Jocson dan Venuri Perera akan menampilkan pertunjukan publik untuk Magic Maids sebagai karya bertumbuh (work in progress) yang diikuti dengan diskusi seniman dalam program dua bulanan On Stage, membuka ruang percakapan tentang kerja, tubuh, dan politik perawatan dalam konteks Asia Tenggara dan lintas wilayah.
Eisa Jocson adalah koreografer dan penari kontemporer asal Filipina, dengan latar belakang pendidikan seni rupa dan balet. Praktik artistiknya menyoroti politik tubuh dalam industri jasa dan hiburan, dibaca melalui kondisi sosio-ekonomi Filipina. Ia meneliti bagaimana dan mengapa tubuh bergerak—baik dalam kerangka mobilitas sosial maupun migrasi tenaga kerja. Dalam karya-karyanya, seperti pole dance, macho dancing, kerja hostes, hingga Princess dan The Zoo, kapital berfungsi sebagai kekuatan pendorong yang mengarahkan tubuh-tubuh terikat ke dalam geografi kerja tertentu. Ia menerima 13 Artists Award dari Cultural Center of the Philippines (2018), Hugo Boss Asia Art Award (2019), SeMa-HANA Award (2021), serta Tabori International Award (2023).
Venuri Perera adalah koreografer, seniman pertunjukan, kurator, dan pendidik asal Kolombo. Karyanya mengeksplorasi relasi kuasa antara visibilitas dan opasitas, dengan tujuan menggoyahkan cara kita memahami “yang lain.” Praktik solonya maupun kolaboratif membahas nasionalisme yang penuh kekerasan, patriarki, imigrasi, warisan kolonial, dan kelas sosial. Karyanya telah dipresentasikan di berbagai festival, biennale, dan simposium di Eropa, Asia, Timur Tengah, dan Afrika. Ia adalah penggagas Colombo Dance Platform (2015–2020) dan lulusan DAS Theatre, saat ini berbasis di Amsterdam.
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Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera’s residency at Studio Plesungan is part of their ongoing ARTEFACT#10 residency, supported by Dance Nucleus. During their time at Studio Plesungan, they continue the development of Magic Maids, a performance project that critically examines the exploitation of migrant domestic workers through historical and contemporary lenses.
Magic Maids draws conceptual connections between the historical witch hunts in Europe and modern domestic labor—two sites of violence that, despite their temporal distance, are marked by control over women’s bodies, fear of the “other,” and the invisibilisation of care work. Domestic labor is approached not merely as everyday activity, but as a political terrain shaped by power relations of gender, class, migration, and racialisation.
Throughout the residency, Jocson and Perera will conduct workshops and interviews with migrant domestic workers from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. These encounters form a body-based research process in which lived experience, working gestures, and embodied memory are treated as living archives that inform the choreographic and dramaturgical structure of the work.
The residency also serves as a crucial phase in the preparation for the premiere of Magic Maids within the Connect Asia Now programme at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore. At Studio Plesungan, the project unfolds as an open process—developed through movement exploration, critical dialogue, and engagement with the local artistic context.
As part of Studio Plesungan’s public programming, Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera will present Magic Maid as work in progress performance followed by an artist talk within the bi-monthly On Stage program, inviting audiences into a broader conversation on labor, embodiment, and the politics of care across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Eisa Jocson is a contemporary choreographer and dancer from the Philippines, trained as a visual artist with a background in ballet. Her practice exposes the politics of the body within the service and entertainment industries, viewed through the socio-economic conditions of the Philippines. She investigates how bodies move and what compels them to move—whether through aspirations of social mobility or through labor migration. Across works ranging from pole dance and macho dancing to hostess work, Princess, and The Zoo, capital emerges as the driving force that pushes indentured bodies into specific spatial and labor geographies. She is a recipient of the 13 Artists Award (2018), Hugo Boss Asia Art Award (2019), SeMa-HANA Award (2021), and the Tabori International Award (2023).
Venuri Perera is a choreographer, performance artist, curator, and educator from Colombo. Her work explores power dynamics between visibility and opacity, seeking to destabilise dominant ways of perceiving the “other.” Her solo and collaborative projects address themes of violent nationalism, patriarchy, immigration, colonial legacies, and class. Since 2008, her work has been presented at festivals, biennales, and symposia across Europe, South and East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. She is the founder and curator of the Colombo Dance Platform (2015–2020), a graduate of DAS Theatre, and is currently based in Amsterdam.
