P002 → the damnation play
My parents were devout followers of the Church when I was born; my father was a pastor, most of my family had been converted by then. Our reality was embedded in the religious fabric of our isolated community, and conversations about apocalyptic creatures and supernatural experiences inhabited our daily lives. Immersed in biblical mythology merged with the holy visions of the founding figure, we adhered to strict rules that guided our reality: one in which the invisible was as present as matter.
My parents and I left the church in 2007. Returning to childhood experiences, I revisit the concept of sin and holiness, once again facing the fear of the Apocalypse and the hope of salvation.
I attempt to retrieve the holiness embedded in the rites and objects I know so well from the times before. I hope that staging ceremonies and gestures with my family will allow for the re-experiencing of the abandoned sacredness. While still craving absolution, I realise that refusal is what’s my life defined by. Refusal of salvation, refusal of the narratives put together by control structures, the choice of self-condemnation over obedience. I have given into a different game, a reverse game; the damnation play.
The Damnation Play began as a deeply personal exploration of my childhood experiences growing up in the Church and its psychological impact. Using childhood photographs as a starting point, I invited female family members to reenact religious rites, reexperiencing ourselves within the Church context.
This collaboration enabled us to confront the submissive roles imposed on us through mechanisms of religious control by engaging in practices deemed sinful for a female, such as operating holy objects or acts of refusal. The project uses embodied enactment as means for experiencing a sense of agency and accessing empowerment though self-determination.