Kent based dance artists Sidonie Carey Green and Tom Tegento have announced the successful funding of its participatory performance project The Body As Data, working with local communities and artists to explore personal narratives and experience of borders.
Through a series of creative movement workshops, site specific walking events, and filming using surveillance technologies, a film is to be created exploring how the ‘body-as-data’ can draw its own border by re-imagining the potential of drone technology and the power of walking practice. This project will connect local communities who have experienced forced migration and will come together to mobilise the border of the Kent coast from Margate to Folkestone.
The Body as Data workshops and walks are set to begin on Saturday 1st June in Margate and will continue through to Sunday 30th June in Folkestone. People are invited to join by the location they live at, and are very welcome to join the locations at Margate and Folkestone.
- 01/06/24 – MARGATE: Crate Space workshop with Tom Tegento and Surya Chandra
- 02/06/24 – Walk from Margate Beach with Tom Tegento and Surya Chandra
- 07/06/24 – MARGATE: ARK workshop with Falle Nioke and TBC
- 08/06/24 – Walk from Walpole Bay Tidal Pool with Falle Nioke and TBC
- 12/06/24 – DOVER: Samphire Project workshop with Farida Yesmin and Surya Chandra
- 12/06/24 – Walk from St Margarets Bay with Farida Yesmin and Surya Chandra
- 19/06/24 – DOVER: Napier Barracks workshop with Farida Yesmin and Josephine Carter
- 20/06/24 – Walk from The Warren with Farida Yesmin and Josephine Carter
- 29/06/24 – FOLKESTONE: Open Quarter workshop with Tom Tegento and Josephine Carter
- 30/06/24 – Walk from Folkestone Beach with Tom Tegento and Josephine Carter
Each workshop and walk is assisted by a team of local artists with lived experience of forced migration, and anyone who has experienced forced migration is invited to join the workshops and walks. Expressions of interests from people whose values align with ours and would like to be involved are invited.
The organisers still witness division and unease surrounding the narrative of migration, and this project seeks to provide a space for conversation within communities and multiple narratives to be heard. From the walks, a film will be created using drone technology to capture local migrant and community participants drawing their own border across the Kent coast, to highlight how the border is constructed, offering an alternative mobilised version of the border which was created by those it denies.
This film will be screened in September and October 2024 in the spaces it was created.
Tom and Sidonie
In 2022 Sidonie and Tom developed a collaborative practice, exploring Tom Tegento’s experience as a refugee arriving from Eritrea and researching what role surveillance technologies could play in performance to provide agency for othered bodies. This culminated in a durational solo performance on Margate beach captured by drone.
The themes explored of reclaiming space and mobilising borders across the Kent coast are as prevalent as ever. Tom and Sidonie have built a collaborative trust through conversation & debate, and by including a broad range of individual thoughts & perceptions, challenging themselves and one another. They believe it is vital to continue this work, but also to expand it in a way that choreographs space for many marginalised people across the Kent coast.
Get Involved
For more information or to get involved, please contact The Body As Data team at bodyasdata@gmail.com or connect with us on Instagram @thebodyasdataproject, and in 1 or 2 sentences stating why you would like to be involved with this project. We are looking forward to an exciting journey with you.
Thank You
Thanks to Arts Council England and Counterpoints Arts for the generous funding of this project. Thank you to the community and participation groups at Napier Barracks, Glenwood House, ARK, and The Samphire Project.
