DIE GEHÄNGTE / (The Hanged Woman)
"Pain body goes bye bye. Time to stop blaming. Let’s reverse thoughts. Where Neo meets Goethe and Jesus has party with Adolf in heaven." (Die Gehängte)
A forty minute solo piece maps Silke Mansholt’s search for an ‘authentic self’ within the collective guilt and grief of German history. Die Gehängte (The Hanged Woman) represents a journey into the truth; an awakening. In Tarot, the ‘hanged man’ (upside down man) symbolises a turning around of our views, attitudes and experiences. The ‘hanged woman’ is ready to let go of her pain, leave the past behind and move on. The spectator witnesses the last encounter between the performer and the burden of her country. Symbolic actions, text directed towards the audience, live vocal sounds, chanting, rich music and subtle expressive choreography, blend into an atmospheric and moving ritual.
In general, Silke Mansholt’s work explores the fertile terrain between the visual and the performative, and is acknowledged for the uncompromising, moving and humorous exploration of life and the inner self. Inspired by the likes of Joseph Beuys and Pina Bausch, it promotes the concept of extended art (social sculpture or live event). Homage to the Heart is an exploration of identity and nationality with specific reference to German culture, through a series of expressionistic movements and iconic music (Wagner, Bach and Schönberg). In Orphan, the artist honours the spirits of the children who once frequented the charity school that originally occupied the Bluecoat Art Centre, where the work was presented. Milijana Babić
Die Gehängte premiered at the Liverpool Biennial in November 2004, and in 2005 was also shown at the Brighton Fringe Arts Production, the Glasgow National Review of Live Art as well as at a conference entitled Towards Tomorrow at the Centre for Performance Research in the mid-Wales town of Aberystwyth.
Organisation: City of Women
In collaboration with: Gledališče Glej; MKC Maribor
TOURING
Monday 10th October, 7 pm
SNG Maribor
As part of the project [prologue] Reclaiming Europe from a New Feminist Perspective, MKC Maribor
