Live-Performance

Paths of Salvation
Oct. 19, 2024 at 17:00
30 min
Audio: Croatian (english translation displayed – monitor/wall)
AAPL Ateliers, Luxembourg
Photo: María Olando

This performance explores the dichotomy between the severity of traumatic experiences and the strength of the human spirit, with a particular focus on the resilience and strength of women in times of crisis and war. Drawing on my mother’s narrative of wartime experiences, which encompasses a complex range of emotions and perspectives, the work highlights the inherent bravery and perseverance of women in extreme and violent circumstances.
I transform the space into a ritual landscape where physical action becomes a meditation on time, memory and heritage by sweeping scattered hemp fibres across the floor. The sweeping continues until all fibres are gathered in the corner, creating clear visual closure and symbolising the process of consolidating memories and gaining control over fragmented past experiences. The auditory component of the performance — my mother’s voice — acts as an emotional guide. Her story about war and the women of four generations in our family fills the space with contrasts that are sometimes humorous and sometimes bitter. Her voice shapes the performance’s tempo, dictates its rhythm and serves as a constant reminder of the complex experiences that the broom ‘physically’ processes. The audience not only witnesses the gesture, but also an intimate narrative, entering into a dialogue between silence and presence, movement and voice and past and present.

Paths of Salvation invites the audience to reflect introspectively on the legacy of trauma and family connections, and on how memories shape our sense of presence. At the same time, the ritualised simplicity and symbolic significance of the gesture bring together the personal and the collective, the physical and the emotional, creating a coherent and evocative experience.