Black Female Being : A Performance - Tito Aderemi-Ibitola

Tito Aderemi-Ibitola ( Nigeria )

Gender is performed. Race is constructed.

These two simple sentences have become axioms firmly implanted in zeitgeist lexicon. Any argument raised to assuage would instantly mark the proponent as nothing more than an ignorant fool.

True, philosophically speaking, Race and Gender are 'made up'; one may concluded that they should have no bearing on actualities of life. However, much like our favorite 'made up' plays or stories, we find that they do come to mean so much and tend to dictate our perspectives and views; these identities are also activated by where we physically are in life.

My inquiry, as part of the ZK/U Berlin Residency Program is to explore how our performed identity of gender and the construction of race activate within the arena of the performance space (both physical and digital) by examining my own claimed identities (female gendered and Black race) and my interpolation of those constructions as I physically move from space to space and 'perform' being black and female.

I would like to ask, what does it mean to be a black female in Germany as opposed to being a black female in Lagos? What are the tenants of performing Black Female Being... Can it be anything outside of what I already am?