In Tracing a Memory Pt. III, performer Quinsy Gario takes the audience on a journey: to Sint Maarten (St. Martin). In 2019, he met here with his mother, Glenda Martinus. They had lived here once before, until 2002. In the meantime, Quinsy Gario had emerged in the Netherlands as a poet, visual artist, and performer, particularly with his work Zwarte Piet Is Racisme (Black Pete Is Racism). Now he had returned – and so had the memory. What memory?

The southern part of Sint Maarten belongs to the Netherlands, the northern part is a French overseas department. Whose history is being remembered?

With Tracing a Memory Pt. III, Quinsy Gario leads the audience right into the historical battle of images and narratives. Meanderingly, he talks about documents, images, and his own memories, about colonialist narratives and resistant actions. And, in passing, he reflects on image-capturing technologies as tools of liberation, considers play and unproductivity as techniques of refusal towards colonial norms – and on the experience of traveling together.

After his performance at the International Performance Festival Permanente Beunruhigung (Permanent Disturbance), his lecture When Artists Refuse, and the premiere of GUTS: Glenda’s Unique Travel Stories in cooperation with Family Connection, this is now his first solo work at the Ballhaus Naunynstraße.

In the context of the festival  BLACK BERLIN BLACK – UNITED POLYPHONIC