kiki sauvaj
Performance and Installation
2026
tr<3gic mulata
KUĆĆA, Nova cesta 128
25th September 2026 19:00
Production: KUĆĆA
tr<3gic mulata is a retired camgirl of mixed racial origin who performs shows for herself alone, in the intimacy of her own bedroom. Deeply dramatic and, at heart, a showgirl who never made it to the stage, she is endlessly preoccupied with the fact that she has been denied a bigger life story than the one tied to racial "passing" — the possibility of being perceived by others as belonging to a different racial group. She films her private dances feeling attractive, confident, and sexy, and never deletes the recordings afterward. She is aware that she is bigger than the stereotype she's been assigned, but is still trying to figure out how to get out of it.
The video work introduces the audience to her strange and secret digital cabaret, offering a brief, voyeuristic glimpse into the layeredness of this character. After encountering her recorded world, tr<3gic mulata will come to life through performance and, for the first time, face the gaze of a real audience. In moving from the privacy of the bedroom and the safety of the screen into a physical exhibition space, the work opens up questions of who watches, who is watched, and how digital spaces shape the body, desire, and identity. At the same time, it interrogates the possibility of escaping stereotype and socially imposed narratives, and the boundary between intimate performance and spectacle staged for others.
The work produced within the WORKROOM project – a residency and production platform launched in 2023, focused on experimental, multimedia, and research-based practices, with particular interest in works exploring alternative modes of feeling, thinking, and being.
Realized with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Zaklada Kultura Nova, and the City of Zagreb Office for Culture.
kiki sauvaj is a dancer, performer, poet, and researcher. Working from the vocabulary of ballet and Afrofuturism 2.0, she creates dark and sensual fictions that explore alienation, post-memory, and the ways past experiences continue to shape the present. The texts she writes and performs function like formulas through which she gives body to mysterious beings from her own inner world. Her practice spans performance, writing, and video, and develops in direct dialogue with academic research.
