In-Between: Children as Performers

Abstract

In January 2020, I spoke with Lucy-Lou Marino, Gold Ray Martin, and Todd Roosevelt Martin about their experiences as performers in “As deep as I could remember, as far as I could see”, a performance by Swedish-Palestinian artist Tarik Kiswanson for Performa 19 Biennial (New York, November 2019). The interview was conducted through a card game to encourage them to think, talk about, and reenact their participation in the performance. From the recordings of this “performative interview,” this video-article creates a fictional dialogue between the children performers, the artist, and the Martiniquan writer, poet, and philosopher Edouard Glissant, whose “Poetique de la Relation” is a major influence on Kiswanson’s artistic work. Immigration, exile, relation, poetry, identity, and language emerge from the crossing of voices, images, and writings captured in New York City at different times and contexts.