The video shows a physical transformation through clay, reminiscent of the performances of Olivier de Sagazan. Transforming oneself, making oneself monstrous to escape the multiple systems of domination.
The text was first written in French. Inspired by feminist research and in particular by Paul B. Preciado’s speech at the Academy of Psychoanalysts “I am a monster”, it evokes the question of the body, limited in its binary definition, and the necessary transformation of the same to achieve a paradigm shift. Our body, this place of all abuses, exposed to the mechanisms of domination (patriarchal, classist, heteronormed, racialized…), must become the battlefield to allow an intersectional discourse.
Inspired by the poetic forms of Gherasim de Luca, the text breaks the grammatical codes, questions the language as a center of power. The interpretation in German is a return to Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy,” which inspired Preciado.
Learning a new language corresponds to the possibility of freeing oneself from the framework of the “mothertongue.” Once acquired, the language of exile, together with the cultural background brought with it, allows a liberation.
x-tractor collective work
Artistic direction: Blandine Casen
Performance: Claire Terrien
Text research and translation: Traum_A and Blandine Casen
Voices : TraumA, Blandine Casen, Cécile Casen
Super 8: Blandine Casen
Sound recording: Ronald Davila
The video instalation was first exhibited in Atelierhaus Mengerzeile und Kunstraum m3 (Berlin) and during the release of la petite publi by compagnie la felure in Marseille.
supported by “Kulturprojekte Berlin, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa”.
Berlin, 2021