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Explodium Outdoors
Come to the adventurous Tolhuistuin, where young makers take you into brand-new work full of stories, images, and flavors. Inspired by the question of which part of our identity we truly want or need to pass on, they bring personal and surprising perspectives to life.
What remains in a time when division sounds ever louder? How can memories and traditions connect rather than divide?
Explodium is a vibrant stage for young makers to experiment, explore, and present. Performances are screened for the public for the first time. Expect a dynamic open-air experience full of boredom and unexpected encounters!
More about Explodium
The five participants of this Explodium Outdoors edition were selected by the ZID artistic team through an Open Call. During the Explodium program (March-May), participants further developed their own work and concepts through inspiring workshops; new material emerged both individually and collectively.
Description of the programme
Bai Li Wiegmans & Ro-Mí Pouw –大香蕉– DÀ XIĀNGJIĀO
Bai Li, dancer and choreographer, and Ro-Mí, dancer and model, form a unique duo combining Chinese martial arts and dance. Their shared personal history, artistic style, and cultural layering come together in their creative process. Both adopted from China, they carry a dual cultural identity that fundamentally influences their artistic practice.
Drawing from their individual as well as shared stories, they search in this performance for a language in which Eastern and Western influences meet.
The title refers, among other things, to the term “banana,” used to describe, in particular, the second generation of Chinese people as “yellow on the outside, white on the inside.”
Marthe van Bronkhorst – IF I WERE A BOY (De DRILL)
Marthe is a performance poet and theatre maker with a passion for language, research, and movement/sport. In her artistic practice, she explores subjects such as feminism, identity, politics, and mental health.
During Explodium, she presents a fitness exercise and theatrical performance in one. A drill sergeant acting as a 'manfluencer' fires ideas at you and drags you along in a playful, physical workout. Hidden beneath the training is a message about existing ideas surrounding masculinity, femininity, and identity.
Halina Mihutskaya – The Alchemy of the Green Gold
Halina Mihutskaya is a performer and theatre maker. In this solo, she continues her exploration of the body as an archive. The Alchemy of the Green Gold explores rituals and fairy tales as a reflection on propaganda and the ecological crisis.
In a world poisoned by nuclear winter, the protagonist searches: stay or go? Resist or give up? A green banana becomes a mythical symbol of hope — a future that ripens, but never arrives.
Side program
Before and after Taste of Identity | Explodium, you can join We Share: a group performance by Halina Mihutskaya in collaboration with five performers who met through her acting course in Amsterdam North.
In an open space, they gather around an imaginary table. Through voice and movement, they explore the baggage we all carry: memories of home, lost and new stories. What begins as something individual grows into connection. What do we recognize in others? And how do our stories grow and change the moment they are shared?
Starring: Laura Murillo, Kseniia Saraeva, Juan Carlos Ramonet Moreno, Ana Mercedes Agudelo Mira, and Aga Stupkiewicz
About our event partners
Over ZID Theate
ZID Theater is een culturele organisatie uit Amsterdam die multidisciplinaire voorstellingen creëert, talentontwikkeling stimuleert en het jaarlijks multidisciplinaire, internationale ExploreZ Festival organiseert. ZID doorbreekt met kunst de muren tussen mensen, culturen en de stad, en biedt aanstormend talent o.a. met een migratie- of vluchtverleden ruimte voor ontwikkeling, begeleiding en een plaats op het podium. Betrokken makers werken in co-creatie met bewoners en lokale gemeenschappen, waardoor professionele, authentieke voorstellingen ontstaan. ZID heeft voor haar werk diverse prijzen ontvangen. In 2020 werd Karolina Spaic, directeur van ZID, benoemd met de Koninklijke Onderscheiding als Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau voor haar bijzondere bijdragen aan cultuur en maatschappij.
Over ExploreZ Festival
Van 28 mei t/m 7 juni zijn er op diverse locaties door de stad voorstellingen, workshops, presentaties en artist talks te beleven als onderdeel van het ExploreZ Festival georganiseerd door ZID Theater. ExploreZ Festival staat voor diversiteit, inclusie, internationale samenwerking en verrassende cross-overs tussen disciplines en gemeenschappen. In 2026 is het thema van ExploreZ ‘Noodzaak als Kompas’, waarin kunst wordt ingezet om urgente vragen van onze tijd te onderzoeken. Makers en publiek verkennen samen thema’s als ongelijkheid, de klimaatcrisis, polarisatie, en uitsluiting. Zij onderzoeken hoe maatschappelijke, persoonlijke en sociale urgentie kan uitgroeien tot een motor voor creativiteit, verbinding en verandering.
