Call me, Catharsis: Part 1 Show 2021

Emerging from a historical crisis of a collective, planetary convalescence, the works in answerless question approach catharsis—transformational release of what is pent—through rituals of process, through drama(tization)s and their mise en scènography. In medicine, spiritualism, and theater, cathartic moments signify a purging of what has been accumulated in a given body, often to the point of poison. Catharsis summons this dark mass outwards for purification and renewal by ritual or controlled repetition. The cathartic instant is the release of accumulated and thus entropic bodies of affect, manifesting clarity in the wake of compulsive forms and movements. An inpatient in a psycho-ethnographic study describes this feeling of involuntary physical expulsion as “being shaken from the neck by a giant.” For catharsis to produce the desired metamorphosis, a distancing is required that allows the subject to both observe from without and understand from within. This remove is needed to stage a space of safety, allowing the subject (or object) to observe in calm what it has retched upwards from shadow. In the spotty-eyed moment of catching one’s breath after ritualistic exertions, entrails are examined as they drip past fingers and catch light. Entropy in atmospheres of collectivity. Shudderings of female daemonic agency. Utterances of revolutionary refusal. Shame liquidized to produce an intimacy of resistance. Fetishistic beings/ comings of desire. Migrant labor and its desolate, calloused hope. Alternative languages for measuring time and other commodities. Chewing on death for a lighter digestion. These are the innards of these bodies, of work produced in multiple scales of haptic obstruction. Call me catharsis and let’s call it a day, we are all pretty much exhausted from the contractions of this rebirth.

Words by Clara Balaguer

 

Acknowledgements:
MAX-PHILIP ASCHENBRENNER, CLARA BALAGUER, ALEXANDER BLUM, HUGO BONAPARTE, CAMILLE BREE, NICKY DEN BREEJEN, BENJAMIN BRENNER, SELMA CARLSSON, CLOUDGÄNGER, NOAH COHEN, MARIJN DEGENAAR, ANTO LOPÉZ ESPINOSA, JANINA FRITZ, JULIUS FRODERMANN, SAMUEL FUENTES, APPARATUS GBR, BENOIT GILLES MICHEL, VALERIA GIRALDO, LAURENT GOEI, DAVID GOLDBERG, LUDOVIC HADJERAS, DAVID HAMAKER, RUPERTO HERRADOR, MATTHIAS HILD, THEO JACOBS, IDA JONSSON, MARIANA JURADO RICO, FRANCISCA KHAMIS, MARGAUX KOCH, FRANZISKA KOCH, JILLIS KRUK, LATEXPERMETERSHOP, LOS AMIGOS, ANDRÉS LIEVANO, ELLA MATHYS, MARIANA’S MOM, BRIAN MCKENNA, METAL AND WOODWORKSHOP, FRANCESCA MIAZZI, JONAS MORGENTHALER, COILLIN O’CONNEL, CAMERON O’FARRELL, CIARA O’KELLY, JESSE VAN POPPEL, PURPLE POWER, ELISABETH PREHN, TOMÁS QUEIROZ, NAZAR RAKHMANOV, NICOLÁS RICO, CLARA ROJAS, LIANE ROSENTHAL, SIMON SAARINEN, LUCIE SAHNER, YARA SAID, NELL SCHAWAN, DE SCHOOL, THILO SEIDEL, JERSZY SEYMOUR, NOEMI THISUMPA, NAIGEL VERMEULEN, NICOLAS VIZCAINO, LUCÍA VIVES, FINN WAGNER, JOHN WALKER, ANNE VAN DER WEIJDEN, DR. STEFANIE WENNER, JOOS WIERSINGA, WEI YANG, ANDONI ZAMORA, MERLIN ZUELLIG AND THE ZWANENPLEIN DARLINGS, GHAITH QOUTAINY