This event is free.
This event is wheelchair accessible.
Language: English
Biography is knowledge: entering the stage
Smiley was the first trans woman to have her name and gender changed on her passport in India. But she wanted more and fled to Switzerland in 2018 to escape the growing Hindu fascism. Smiley's solo is an approachable and humorous portrayal of her experiences, which delighted an international audience following its premiere in Basel. For her new performance lecture, Smiley meets gender researcher Andrea Zimmermann. Together with director Marcel Schwald, they have developed a dialogical format in the context of art of intervention that ventures into hot topics with video recording and audience: the experience of flight and its artistic treatment, representation of trans people, inclusion and diversity in theater.
Duration: approx. 90 min. incl. audience discussion
Credits
Performance: Living Smile Vidya
Moderation: Andrea Zimmermann
Artistic direction: Marcel Schwald
Production: Mirjam Berger / Das Theaterkolleg
Biografien
LIVING SMILE VIDYA (Smiley) is an actress, clinic clown, writer, illustrator and founder of India's first trans* theater group Panmai Theatre. In her home state of Tamil Nadu, she is the first trans woman to obtain a change of name and gender in her passport. This created a legal basis for transgender rights in South India. Smiley then fought for labor rights, became the first trans woman to work in a bank branch and finally followed her passion for theater and art. Her biography I am Vidya has been translated into six languages, made into a movie and received a lot of attention in India. The play The Color of Trans toured the USA and other countries. Living Smile Vidya has been living in Eschenbach since 2018, after fleeing to Switzerland due to attacks on her life because of her political activities.
Her solo performance of Smiley «Introducing Living Smile Vidya» was part of the Treibstoff Theatertage Basel 2023 and toured through Switzerland and France as well as to the Impulse Theaterfestival in Cologne.
Andrea Zimmermann is a Gender Researcher and leads the project «Gender and Diversity Monitoring in Cultural Institutions», which is based at the University of Bern. Together with Dominique Grisard, she launched art of intervention in 2018: a networking platform to promote exchange between academia, culture and public debate. She researches gender equality, emancipatory critique, theater, emotions and masculinities. She previously worked as a dramaturge.
The director Marcel Schwald was born in Basel in 1976. His works can be seen at various theaters and festivals in Switzerland and abroad, including the Impulse NRW Festival, Sélection Suisse en Avignon and Beijing Fringe Festival. In 2012/13, he was in-house author at the Konzert Theater Bern, and in 2017 he was nominated as Young Director of the Year in the critics' vote of the magazine "Theater heute". He has been developing documentary dance pieces with choreographer Chris Leuenberger since 2015.