Jimmy Grima is an artist-curator and holds an MA in Theatre from Das Theatre in Amsterdam. His trans-disciplinary practise is concerned with the politics of memory and archiving. Deeply interested in the disappearance of local and undocumented knowledge, he has a great affinity for the relationship between humans and nature.
Originally from Malta, where nature and her ghosts are frequently intertwined with daily life, Jimmy is now based between Malta and Amsterdam. He finds it striking how nature in the Netherlands has been controlled and adapted to the human scale. Through remembrances, myths and scientific data, Jimmy tries to find histories, stories and details that reconnect humans to their environment.
Jimmy is an associate artist working with Malta’s national theatre company, Teatru Malta, and also the founder of the rubberbodies collective. Rubberbodies began in 2009 as a way of bringing creatives together, and subsequently developed as a theatre and art group. As an ever-evolving cast of contributors, rubberbodies continues to foster collaboration, community engagement and performative situations on the Maltese islands and elsewhere. Jimmy’s desire to bring people and organisations together has also borne fruit in the form of other structured and ongoing frameworks such as Warehouse No. 8, and hopeforprosperity.
Jimmy is currently supported by 3PackageDeal from Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Bureau Broedwoningen.
With this support, he is researching the notion of water and how it has been tamed by humans in his adopted home of the Netherlands. However, with his roots still deep in the soil of his Mediterranean homeland, he is concurrently exploring the topic of explosions in Malta, drawing parallels between religious and ritual bombs (the fireworks of the Maltese festas) and historical, political, bombings.
Having created past works involving the Earth, the winds and the birds, it seems the stories of fire and water are to be balanced for the coming year.
Resume
Awards Achievements
2021 3Package Deal (Amsterdam)
2021 Associate Artist (National Theatre Malta)
Education
2018-2020
Das Theatre, AHK, Amsterdam
MA Theatre (Curation)
2005-2006
Dartington College of Arts, UK
BA Theatre and Digital Art (incomplete)
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List of Works
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Theatre/ Performance
2021
Kaxxa Infernali: Explosions (Fireworks)
2020
Composer, Writer, Director, Performer of Kerogen Voices
2018
Director, Writer, Performer of Nassaba – Song of a Bird (Theatre: 90 min: co. prod. Teatru Malta, The Rubberbodies Collective: Language Maltese: English Subtitles)
2017
Collaborator, Performer of Upstairs Geology
(by Ira Melkonyan, Performance: 25 min: Das Theatre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
2015
Director, Producer & Designer of Ma Rridx Immur
(written by Leanne Ellul, Drama (Maltese) : 90 minutes: 2 Acts – co. prod.Teatru Manoel, Valletta, prod. The Rubberbodies Collective – co.prod. Arts Council Malta)
2014
Director of The Pill
(by Ira Melkonyan, Performance-based on the research of medicalisation: 50 minutes: English/Russian: prod. The Rubberbodies Collective)
2013
Co-Writer, Designer & Producer of Ħal Mitfa’
(Street Theatre and Site-Specific Theatre: 7 days: Maltese: the web – comm. Ziguzajg Festival: prod. The Rubberbodies Collective)
Director, Producer & Designer of Grandma, Temi & The Crimean Fever
(by Ira Melkonyan, Site-Specific Theatre : 45min: comm. Science in the City: host. Ministry of Health. Prod. The Rubberbodies Collective)
2012
Director, Producer & Performer of Old-Salt
(Outdoor Theatre : 50 min : comm.Malta Arts Festival : prod.The Rubberbodies Collective)
Director, Designer & Producer for Penelope Dust in Our Awakened Dreams
(DanceTheatre : 50 min: MITP, Valletta :
2011
Director, Designer & Producer of DUNKARM
(Performance Installation: durational: Splendid. Valletta: comm. Ministry of Education: prod. The rubberbodies collective co.prod Mavin Khoo)
Director, Designer & Producer of White Sea (Baħar Abjad)
(visual theatre: 50 min: St, James Cavalier; prod.The Rubberbodies Collective )
2010
Director & Producer of 100
(Site-Specific Theatre: 50 min: Dock No.1 Cospicua: host.Grand Harbour Regeneration Project)
2009
Director & Performer of Grace u Rofflu
(Dance Theatre: MITP: Valletta: prod. The Rubberbodies Collective)
2006
Director of The Mountain Luggage
(Site-Specific Theatre: ACAF, Alexandria Egypt.)
2005
Co-director & Performer in The Story of M
(Physical Theatre: 50 min: Teatru Manoel,)
Director of Child
(Theatre: 20 min: St James Cavalier – Valletta)
Newton’s Laws of Motion
(Performance Installation: St James Cavalier – Valletta)
‘Look and Feel’
(Interactive Installation: St James Cavalier – Valletta)
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Curation
2019
Curator of Blurry Memories, Corridor Conversations, and Boxed ObsoleteMedia: A Research Space (Multimedia Installation, Research Space, Das Theatre, Amsterdam)
A physical space to house the material he had collected – a research office – at the very same institution that had concealed its prehistory in its attic. Open to visitors to this fictional research space were encouraged to move laterally and intimately through the history of experimental theatre in Amsterdam. With the aim of questioning the linearity of official stories, the immersive installation exposed the scribbles, the side notes of the past, bringing new voices forward in the matrix and offering up ghosts in the round. Marginalia, scraps, and gossip sat beside archival documents
2018
Online curator of Magna Żmien (A home collection digitisation and collection project of obsolete media)
2016
(ongoing) Co-curator of Hoop for Prosperity
(An ongoing series of debates: co.cur. Isobel Dryburgh: Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Co-Curator of Il-Pinnuri
(Video Art (10 min: digital HD), Sculpture (4 fiberglass sculptures) and Text (Transcriptions of Documentation): Spazju Kreattiv : prod.the rubberbodies collective
2014 – 2017
Il-Warda Tar-Riħ (The Wind-Rose Project) recovered memories from all four corners of the Maltese archipelago. Following discourse and design sessions with local communities, artists with The RBC present their findings in sculptural form. The works touch on a time-old Maltese connection to the elements and natural rhythms.
2012
Producer and Designer of Oracle
(Site-Specific Silent Concert: 90 min: Hagar Qim Temples: host.Heritage Malta: prod.The Rubberbodies Collective: co.prod. Ultimae Records)
2010
Patches Market
Founded Patches an event with the aim of bringing together talented makers, designers and stylists in one place. Having artists and makers on-site taking the form of a market where you can find handmade items of exceptional quality.
2009 –2019
The Rubberbodies Collective
Multidisciplinary Artist Collective
Founding Member and Artistic Director
Founded in 2009, the rubberbodies collective (rbc) are an artist collective. The collective places emphasis on innovative artistic productivity and is dedicated to developing a collaborative approach to contemporary performance, working with writers, designers, filmmakers, choreographers, performers, architects, historians and curators. For rubberbodies I directed 10 theatre and dance works, secured and managed 9 years of public funding and produced 15 projects. I also established a Board of Directors and oversaw the transition of the organisation as it became a registered partnership and now transitioning to a foundation. The collective’s repertoire consists of theatre productions, site-specific performances, concerts, plastic arts exhibitions, publications, films, and installation works. Where possible, the rbc promotes new experiences and creates opportunities, supporting the art scene, through collaboration and contribution.
2008
Warehouse No.8
Independent Cultural Venue
Founded and acted as creative producer the Warehouse No.8 projects, the set, and running of a temporary cultural venue in a former industrial warehouse in the harbour area hosting several performance events; running through a audience membership scheme and a crew of volunteers.
Curator of The Red Book and the Exercises
(Collective Exhibition and Performance: General Workers Union – Valletta)
2007
Curator & Producer of Lixandra Project
(Micro Festival: Concert, Film Festival, Poetry Reading: Various Locations around Valletta – Malta Arts Festival)
Co-Curator & Designer for The Birth of the Seventh Art in Alexandria (semi-permanent exhibition and catalog: Biblioteca Alexandrina, Alexandria Egypt, prod, Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Alexandria and the Mediterranean Research Center) Catalog Description xiii, 397 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cm. edited by Mohamed Awad & Sahar Hamouda.
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Film/ Video
2013
Writer, Director & Designer of L-Iblah
(Short film: 10 min: Digital HD)
2010
Writer, Director & Designer of Lubien: Thoughts
(Short film: 20 min: PAL)
2008
Writer, Director & Designer of B420
(Short film: 10 min: PAL)
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Publications
2020
An introduction to the DasArts Archive (72 pages, 10.5 x 18.5 cm) edited by Isobel Dryburgh
2017
Pinnuri
(20 pages ; The Rubberbodies Collective)
2012
Woven threads Recounting the creative process of Penelope Dust in our awakened dreams
(20 pages ; The Rubberbodies Collective)
Echoes of the Oracle : Writings on the Temples and Sound
(20 pages ; The Rubberbodies Collective)
2010
Co-Author & Designer of Rubberbodies: A Trajectory Towards an Artist Collective
(72 pages: prod. The rubberbodies collective)
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Installations & Exhibitions
Solo
2019
S,O.A.B: The Choir
(Stereo Sound Installation: ComeTogether 4. Frascati Theatre
2013
L-Iblah
(Immersive Installation: Sand Pit; fan ; Cyclorama: Plastic Sheet: Silver Filigree : Cinema: host. St James Cavalier
2011
Jimmy Grima
(20 Drawings – Solo Exhibition)
2006
The Worker and his Friend
(Drawings Exhibition :General Workers Union – Valletta)
Collective
2020
Debatable Lands
Kerogen Voices: Human-made Earthquakes (Multimedia Installation, by Grammar of Urgencies Collective (Maren Zazek Richter and Klaus Schafler , KEX, Vienna Austria)
2016
MADATAC|
l-iblah (10 min : digital hd, cur, Dr Raphael Vella, Madrid Spain)
2014
The Summer Collective Exhibition
Bird Series I: 4 Paintings : cur. Lily Agius, Sliema Malta)
2013
Duke of Edinburgh Room 36.
3 drawings 10x10cm; 20 min: Documentary: Digital HD: cur. Austin Camilleri. Gozo)
Maltese Landscape
3 drawings: Auberge D\Italie, Valletta)
2011
Science and Society
6 drawings: cur. Lily Agius prod. Science in the City)
2009
Square
(3 artworks: 10×10” :Collective Exhibition : cur.Alexandra Pace: No.68 St Lucy Street, Valletta)
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Other training
Piano Practise and Theory
Sax Alto
Language
Maltese and English: mother tongues;
Italian: fluent;
Arabic, Spanish, French: elementary
Dutch: very basic
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