2013
Site-specific performance by Marta Lodola. Duration 30 min. Materials: military jacket, boots, world map, binoculars, white chalks, red marker, red painting
Event XLab Corrosive Art Farm, curated by Paola Verde, Berlin
This art action was a protest against the eviction of the Italian gallery Xlab Corrosive Art Farm in Berlin due to the gentrification. This is an effect of the economic powers that decide about people’s life, forcing them to leave their houses and work places.
I run out of the gallery, walking and placing a world map on the pavement. Some people from the audience are invited to step with one foot on the map’s edges. I start to draw a red X on the countries with more economic power and I draw around people’s feet a white outline on the floor with the chalk. Another person from the public has the task to watch the entire situation with binoculars from far away.
I violently kick the map with my boots and I start to destroy it. The public on the map slowly returns to their place. I take off the military jacket and the boots. I lay down on the map almost naked, I pour red colour on my body. I wrap myself with the map, then I hold it to my chest as if it was a child and I leave the space.
ph Paola Verde