‘Welcome, please take a few moments to make yourselves comfortable on the devices in front of you. Maria-Magdalena David greets the audience with a suave voice, uncluttered by a microphone encased in a fur hat. The audience is invited to take a seat on relaxation benches and let themselves be guided by the instructions whispered by the artist. "Observe your saliva foam and envelop your tongue [...] Become aware of all the air molecules and subtle smells that surround you..." While the microphone filters out the sounds of the mouth, the perfume that subtly fills the atmosphere is made up of notes of saliva, sweat and sperm. As they stand up, the spectators notice that the surface of the benches, covered in thermochromic paint, has recorded the imprint of their bodies. In this soft, comfortable environment, Maria-Magdalena David collects and brings to light traces of bodily fluids and memories that disturb the a priori aseptic dimension of the set. In a looped video, the artist's mother brushes her hair: a hygienic gesture that would be banal if it weren't linked to the traumatic memory of a childhood separation. On the floor, piles of duvets are printed with texts that, beneath their decorative aspect, evoke the question of the movement of bodies from one nation to another. On the wall, a text shifts between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. The installation becomes the antechamber to a repository of memory, establishing an analogy between the body and the archive. In the case of Maria-Magdalena David, what transpires through her pores and in her language is imbued with the post-Soviet heritage of the Moldova where she grew up. Informed by hydro-feminist theories and the post-colonial writings of the theorist Homi Bhabba, Maria-Magdalena David's practice postulates a hybridity in which the redefinition of the limits of the body enables us to envisage the reshaping of political boundaries, in which our secretions insidiously disrupt the established order.
Elsa Vettier
A sound installation dispersed over five speakers covered in fake fur, accompanied by armchairs coated in thermochromic paint that transforms at temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius. The piece also includes a photograph and a text printed on fabric, a sculptural sled coated in thermochromic paint and a microphone used for sound recording in cinema.
The performance was held at La Società delle Api on June 19, 2024
