The Yams Deserve Better – Schwindelfrei Festival

The Yams Deserve Better
Oré Arts e.V. (Heidelberg/Mannheim)

About the Residency
Who can stay, under what conditions, and within what community? 

“At the heart of the residency is the question of what ‘staying here’ concretely means under conditions of political and social exclusion. We explore how people affected by exclusionary rhetoric and structural racism shape their everyday lives, which routines, gestures, and relationships provide them with support, and where ruptures and acts of resistance become visible. Our starting point is listening practices in the public spaces of Mannheim’s T- and S-Quadrate, which we understand as a social resonance space. Here we encounter the community whose everyday life underpins our project—in conversations, paths, glances, and moments of belonging and exclusion. 

As part of the residency, we are collecting a deliberately curated selection of short audio and video contributions. In these, people speak about everyday experiences of staying: a particular path, a greeting, a movement, a phrase, or a place that provides a sense of security. The focus is on creating an archive that can be realized within three weeks. These voices are transformed into a community audio format and woven into the performance as a soft soundscape—not as an explanation, but as the audible presence of the community. 

At the same time, the performers are developing a physical archive. In “Community Walks,” people demonstrate gestures and movements that, for them, signify “staying here”: postures, everyday actions, dance movements, or rhythms. These fragments are collected, choreographically condensed, and physically translated. The performers work in a body-based, improvisational, and documentary manner; performance becomes a practice of presence, resistance, and belonging.” /Oré Arts e.V.

About the Artists
Oré Arts e.V. has been working for seven years to strengthen the visibility and recognition of Black people in art and culture. The goal is to combat structural racism and promote empowerment through artistic and cultural forms of expression. Oré Arts offers Black women a platform to make their identities, histories, and experiences visible. The work is interdisciplinary and combines art education, community work, and political education from a consistently decolonial perspective. 

What can you expect? 
A multifaceted space of experience where everyday gestures, paths, and voices come together to form a living archive of belonging. 

Cast & Credits
Janaína de Oliveira Gerdemann / Mixed-media artist and performer / Heidelberg 
Isabella Schroth / Performer and Store Manager / Mannheim 
Betelihem Fisshaye / Performer and Educator / Heidelberg 
Sandra Oliveira / Theater educator and performer / Heidelberg 

www.ore-arts.de

The Oré Arts e.V. residency is taking place in cooperation with zeitraumexit.