Clara Saito

Clara Saito is a performance and visual artist based in Amsterdam. In her recent works she transitions between different characters, such as the drag king persona Kurt Dickriot, a rock star in performance arts called Lady Dada and/or a dog called Diva amongst others. In each presentation, the personalities and moods of Saito's characters evolve as they are deeply connected to current events and the artists’ authentic experiences. Their entangled stories were theorized and brought closer together in her MA thesis called Dissociative Performance – Anarchic Bodies and the Politics of Improvisation. Clara’s work, in combination with her life experiences and mixture of identities, forms the base for her reflections on anarchism, practices of freedom and improvisation. She graduated with her BA at SNDO (School for New Dance Development, NL) in 2014 and her MA at the Dutch Art Institute in 2019 (NL). 

Since 2017 Clara has been part of Jacuzzi, an artist-run space at the crossroads of performance, visual arts and time-based media in Amsterdam. As a performer, she worked for Michelle Moura (Venice Dance Biennale) and Florentina Holzinger (Impulstanz) amongst others.