Act of Valor
Workshop and Collective Performance
Applications are open through Febuary 7th, 2025 to participate in Act of Valor, a workshop led by artist Tirzo Martha.
About Captain Caribbean
This workshop and collective performance takes as its point of departure the figure of Captain Caribbean, an artistic persona that emerged in Tirzo Martha’s practice in 2009. Wearing a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) bucket on his head, diving goggles, and a rosary or machete, this “superhero”—or antihero—battles against social, political, and economic injustices affecting Dutch Caribbean society while contributing to the creation of a new consciousness throughout the region. Captain Caribbean wants the individuals to be aware of their own value and power in creating change.
Act of Valor
We are living through turbulent times. From climate change to war, forced migration, displacement, famine, systemic racism and the violation of human rights, we are confronted on a daily basis with multiple problems and conflicts that have the power to determine our existence or otherwise hinder our development. We long for freedom, equality, peace, and hope for the future. At a time when politics as performance prevails and our human rights are curtailed, how can we make our voices heard? How, together, can we find solutions to the problems impacting our communities and environment? How can our individual and collective everyday actions contribute to enacting such solutions? One cannot help but wish for supernatural powers, for the extra-special ability to create a better world.
Workshop
In this workshop, participants will create their own costume for a personal superhero with the ability to vanquish problems they hope to tackle. Participants will be asked to bring an object of personal value, something that embodies or symbolizes their struggle. This item will be used to spark the process of art making. A superhero costume will be designed based on the needs and the ideas proposed by the participants. These costumes and the superpowers that they enable will be points of departure for a future performance.
Workshop and Performance Schedule Information
Workshop and performance participation will be compensated at a rate of $250 total per participant. Participants must be 18 years or older. Workshop participation has a limited capacity, and participants will be selected based on submitted applications. Participation does not require prior artmaking or performance skills or experience.
The workshop will follow a hybrid format, combining a series of virtual and in-person meetings in February 2025. The workshop schedule is detailed below, and participation does not require attendance on all days:
- February 12, 1pm-2pm (Required date)
Virtual meeting on Zoom: Artist and project introduction - February 18, 1pm-2pm
Virtual meeting on Zoom to present and brainstorm superpowers and discuss as a group - February 23, 3–6 pm (Required date)
Meeting at PAMM to define performance theme and concept and begin costume and performance design - February 24, 3–6 pm
Meeting at PAMM to continue work on costumes and performance concept - February 25, 3–6 pm
Meeting at PAMM for final adjustments to costumes and refine performance - February 26, 3–6pm (Required date)
Meeting at PAMM for final adjustment of costumes and rehearsal of individual and collective performance - February 27, 3–6pm and 7pm (Required date)
Meeting at PAMM for final rehearsal and public performance
Collective Performance
Participants will work with Tirzo Martha to develop individual performances based on their interests. These individual performances will then be brought together in the form of a collective performance presented at the museum on February 27, 2025. All details related to the execution of the collective performance will be defined and decided upon by mutual agreement between the artist, participants, and PAMM’s staff.
Tirzo Martha’s live art event is presented at PAMM as part of Beyond Representation, a research project and performance series that investigates a broad range of performance and performative practices by artists from the Caribbean or of Caribbean descent working in the region or its diasporas. It features an intergenerational group of artists—from pioneers in the field to emerging artists—who employ the body or rely on bodily experience and live action to critically engage with the social, political and cultural reality in their respective contexts.
Beyond Representation on PAMMTV
The online component of Beyond Representation highlights the abundant contributions made by Caribbean creators to performance art. Featuring video-performance works by Tirzo Martha, Jeannette Ehlers, Carlos Martiel, Viveca Vázquez, and Merián Soto, this PAMMTV exhibition exposes and refuses oppressive colonial ideologies while creating multiple narratives of freedom, healing, solidarity, and joy.
In dialogue with the collective performance Act of Valor, which will be presented at PAMM in February 27, 2025, Martha’s video performance I Wonder If They’ll Laugh When I’m Dead also references the figure of Captain Caribbean, an artistic persona that emerged in the artist’s practice in 2009. Loaded with sarcasm and humor, Martha’s video piece blends performance, animation, and archival documentary footage to address the ongoing effects of slavery and colonialism in present-day Curaçao. Visit pamm.tv for full videos and more information.
Related Content
CCI Performance Art Series: Act of Valor by Tirzo Martha
Tirzo Martha
Beyond Representation
