2014
Site-specific performance by Marta Lodola in collaboration with Marco De Meo (Contamina), duration 1 hour. Materials: big trunk, formal jacket, black skirt, black tights, white shirt, a printed photography, beer bottle full of water, white frames, printed paper
The art collective Contamina collaborated with Auser Cologno Monzese and the Municipality of Cologno Monzese for the campaign against Gender Violence. This autobiographical project exposes a violent harassment in a public space, where the audience witnesses without knowing if what is happening is true or not.
I walk carrying a trunk, asking people I meet on the street to follow me on the public square: the undeclared stage for this performance. I open the trunk and I remove one by one my clothes in order to wear a new one. Every time I try to wear something new, my colleague Marco enters the space shouting and interrupting me in a violent way. Each gesture has almost always a symbolic value, sometimes it’s more physical. Until I react and send him away, asking for help to the public.
The public is invited then to march with me in order to reach the Municipality’s entrance. On the microphone, I speak about gender definitions, about how society is built on rules and stereotypes which are not always true and just feed the patriarchy. The consequences are the discrimination of any people who do not fall within those parameters, the reference to a hetero-normative society. In addiction to that, the security of both women and LGBTQA+ people is strongly compromised. Therefore I sustain the idea that our persona is defined by our actions and experiences, not by well-known stereotypes.
After the performance, Contamina invited the public to a conference about gender violence held in the Municipality of Cologno Monzese, everyone was free to express their personal opinion on the subject. The artists, the Auser’s members and an Amnesty International delegate attended the conference.
ph Francesco Grabriele Insalaco – LaSchienaDiLara