MerFolk

Funded by the German Research Fundation (DFG) – Emmy Noether Programme
Funding Period: 2025 – 2031

The focus of the project MerFolk between myth, the everyday and afterlife – dance research perspectives on transfluidity is on performative, audiovisual, and ritual representations of sea people, or MerFolk as they are called here, as symbolic and artistic figures. This includes the likes of mermaids, mermen, the Mami Wata – a mythical water spirit from West African lore – and the Yemanjá, a sea goddess venerated in Brazilian narrative cultures. These figures move between myth and presence, between precolonial traditions and transmodern popular culture. Their embodiments occur in rituals, performances, and movies as well as in everyday practices and digital imagery.

The geographical scope of the project ranges from the Atlantic to Brazil and from West Africa to Warsaw, whose coat of arms features a mermaid. The diversity of the water spirits is also reflected in the settings, including transatlantic coasts and coastal spaces worldwide – as well as the small lake in front of Nennhausen Castle in Brandenburg, where the Romantic figure Undine has its origins.

The Projektteam (Mariama Diagne, Isabel Kwarteng-Acheampong, Selia Marina Fischer, Maya Nikolov) analysiert diese Figuren als Körper in Bewegung, die normative Vorstellungen von Geschlecht, Identität und Kanon hinterfragen. „MeerMenschen“ brechen ihnen zufolge den Kanon stereotyper Bewegungen und Körperbilder – und fordern etablierte Kultur- und Kunstvorstellungen heraus. Gleichzeitig werden im Projekt aktuelle Trends wie das „Mermaiding“ beobachtet – das zunehmend populäre Schwimmen mit Fischschwanz. Mit der Forschung schlagen Diagne, Kwarteng-Acheampong, Fischer und Nikolov eine Brücke zwischen Tanzwissenschaft, Transmoderneforschung und postkolonialer Kulturtheorie – und leisten einen Beitrag zur Reflexion ästhetischer und politischer Körperbilder im globalen Kontext.