Performance by visual artist Tatiana Kocmur
“Whatever pain achieves, it achieves in part through its unsharability, and it ensures this unsharability through its resistance to language." Elaine Scarry
At the beginning of 2022, Tatiana Kocmur began to focus her artistic research on historical and contemporary problems of physical and sexual violence and the concept and language (or rather non-language) of pain. The Following Body is the first visual articulation of this exploration.
This performance shows a hard-to-understand, or, more precisely, unimaginable change and impairment of the organism due to the sudden action of an external force. The internal conflict of understanding, acknowledging, and accepting a different body structure is visible externally in the performance in the form of two semantic entities: The dance of silent formations is sensual and at the same time aggressive. Their interdependence and inseparability define their relationship. At one point they are seen as lovers, but in the very next one as opponents. They become an exhibit of love and hate. In a slow and painful intertwining of the two, the roles of aggressor and victim are mixed. Their movements make (un)pleasant sounds that remind us of everything that didn’t and cannot arrive at articulation because of the post-traumatic syndrome and the fear that appears with a demanding, traumatic experience.
The performance is dedicated to Juana and all victims of sexual violence.
Images and sounds, used to create a composition for live performance, were selected through the artist's conversations with individuals who experienced sexual abuse in their youth.
CREDITS
Author and performer: Tatiana Kocmur
Dress: Jaka Grm
Voice: Juana
Video: Domen Martinčič
Video editing and sound: Tatiana Kocmur
Object construction support: Stefan Doepner
Implementation: Liza Šimenc
Photography: Nina Pernat
Mentor: Matej Kejžar
Production: Pekinpah
Financial Support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and Municipality of Ljubljana – Department of Culture
Premiere: 30. november 2022 Špitalski kapeli, Celje
Tatiana Kocmur (Buenos Aires, 1992) is a visual artist and contemporary art producer, representative of the association Cirkulacija 2 and co-initiator of TRANSLACIJA/TRASLACIÓN, a platform for the production, exhibition and research of performance art. Her work is based on the phenomenon of “living images of hybrids”, which she uses to transcend established social norms. The androgynous figure of her flesh challenges conventional notions of the body and identity. Her suggestive animal poses captivate the gaze, giving birth to new hybrid creatures, while still lifes of the erotic and sensual blur the boundaries between spectacle and ritual. Her artistic practice is based on collaborations with artists from different backgrounds. Emerging from a synergy of diverse artistic approaches, her work focuses on the body as an inspiration and a powerful mediator of socio-political messages. She has presented her work in numerous national and international contexts, including exhibitions and alternative spaces in Skopje, Milan, Bologna, Berlin and Timișoara. In 2024 and 2021, she received a working grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. In 2020, she completed her postgraduate studies in painting with the Master’s thesis “Physical Installation – Between Performance and Object”.
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© Tomaz Crne