Sugar Army Collective

Founder of Sugar Army Collective with up-and-coming artists based in berlin. Our members are Miwa Shibata, Maya Selezneva, Taylor Unwin, Aybike İpekçi, Shira Shiryan. these members are coming from Germany, Turkey, Russia, Israel, Japan and the USA.

Focusing on the theme of masculinity, we explore how societal expectations shape and sometimes distort human behavior, and how breaking through can lead to both vulnerability and liberation.

Sugar Army Collective in Symposia.Berlin

THE RILED

Concept by: Miwa Shibata

Performance & Choreography by:

Miwa Shibata, Taylor Unwin, Aybike İpekçi, Shira Shiryan, Maya Selezneva

Sugar Army Collective ventures into the landscape of masculinity, unveiling it as both a crafted facade and a wellspring of inner turmoil. In our work, ‘toxic masculinity’ isn’t simply embodied—it is subverted with an edge of playfulness and a quiet, stubborn resilience. Through this dual lens, we channel the weight of expectations that fracture identity, tracing the invisible scars they leave on those who resist and those who submit.

Our performances echo the voices of those on the periphery—souls bound by class, silenced by a lack of education, denied the means to alter their lives. We offer a glimpse into the raw struggle for existence, drawing attention to the grinding forces of inequality. Our work is an embodied response to a society that divides and estranges, challenging the subtle frameworks that trap people in cycles of isolation and constraint.

We peel back masculinity to expose the vulnerability it conceals, weaving ‘boyish’ gestures into our movements to reveal fragility within the façade of strength. This paradox confronts you, urging a reexamination of gendered expectations, of strength not as armor but as a tender admission of vulnerability.

In occupying open, urban spaces, we blur the borders between performer and witness, inviting you, the passerby, to become a part of the unfolding story. Our movements play with sight and space, dissolving the barrier that traditionally separates the audience from the art, leaving you as neither spectator nor participant but something in between. By transforming the mundane into the surreal, we invite you to question the world around us, to confront the political, cultural, and social echoes embedded within our work.Sugar Army Collective ventures into the landscape of masculinity, unveiling it as both a crafted facade and a wellspring of inner turmoil. In our work, ‘toxic masculinity’ isn’t simply embodied—it is subverted with an edge of playfulness and a quiet, stubborn resilience. Through this dual lens, we channel the weight of expectations that fracture identity, tracing the invisible scars they leave on those who resist and those who submit.

Our performances echo the voices of those on the periphery—souls bound by class, silenced by a lack of education, denied the means to alter their lives. We offer a glimpse into the raw struggle for existence, drawing attention to the grinding forces of inequality. Our work is an embodied response to a society that divides and estranges, challenging the subtle frameworks that trap people in cycles of isolation and constraint.

We peel back masculinity to expose the vulnerability it conceals, weaving ‘boyish’ gestures into our movements to reveal fragility within the façade of strength. This paradox confronts you, urging a reexamination of gendered expectations, of strength not as armor but as a tender admission of vulnerability.

In occupying open, urban spaces, we blur the borders between performer and witness, inviting you, the passerby, to become a part of the unfolding story. Our movements play with sight and space, dissolving the barrier that traditionally separates the audience from the art, leaving you as neither spectator nor participant but something in between. By transforming the mundane into the surreal, we invite you to question the world around us, to confront the political, cultural, and social echoes embedded within our work.