KARINA
ZOTHNER
2018
WHEN YOU TAKE THE FIRE
PERFORMANCE
6 October. 10pm
Municipal Exhibition Hall ROYAL PRISON
RATE. CADIZ
Performative Action presented within the framework of the #REFUGIOS Exhibition during the NIGHT IN WHITE in Tarifa
WHEN YOU TOOK THE FIRE is a poetic review of a supposed situation in which we lose a previously achieved status.
A work raised from the most intimate and introspective, listening to the body in relation to the matter that surrounds it, a journey through the senses and an encounter with freedom; to be, to choose, to decide and to do.
The conceptual basis on which the work is structured is a reflection on the loss of a status, on detachment and on resilience, understood as adaptation and overcoming the supposed loss of comforts or advances transformed into capacities or competencies.
Thus, the performance has been carried out blindfolded, working on a medium-large format canvas, in an intimate session illuminating the room where the work has been presented only with candles.
A very special, enveloping, suggestive and slightly obsessive atmosphere has been created. Accompanied by audio created for the specific situation, with a loop of own voices and fragments of audio pieces that evoke soundscapes.
Three colors, red, black and walnut, graphite and white oil in stick and salt and dry pigment, Tierra de Cassel.
The original colors of prehistory, salt and dry land.
When the first prehistoric men discovered fire, by accident, lightning struck and set fire to a tree, they domesticated that fire that heated them, lit them up and roasted their food. They tamed fire but did not know how to obtain it. And they guarded it with zeal and haste, perhaps the first great possession of humanity, perhaps the first great belonging that changed their sense of ownership and vital dependence on something very, very valuable.
In this project, the reflection goes through a scenario in which the "guardian" of the fire disappears and leaves the tribe submerged in cold and darkness. A setback on an achieved status. But that setback allows the tribe to re-learn again to be free of possessions.
Metaphorically, I pose my action blindfolded, renouncing vision, order, control, delegating to a deep sensory process, very very intimate, connected to the deepest and most animal part of my being.
Silence deepens and space becomes infinite.
Without vision, "without brain" I have no other solution than to feel up to unsuspected limits that allow me to make a deep, emotional and sensitive journey. I feel the energy that emanates from my hands and I feel the heat that the colors give off and I make a tour of the entire support, leaning on this accumulation of sensations.
karina zothner
2018 rate