“Ma-Ma” – between body, nature and photography
The life-giving woman archetype, that respects and supports organic processes and values collaboration and intuition, has been associated with nature in various cultures and religions. However, in our patriarchal society, women and nature tend to be viewed and treated with a similar hegemonic notion: controlled, dominated and exploited. In such a society women and nature are considered property and in need of control.
How can we appreciate the close interconnection between nature and women and at the same time react to the patriarchal system? What would society look like if we shifted towards a philosophy that would value collaborative systems, appraisal of all lifeforms, recognition of the dependence of humanity on nature and reevaluation of sacredness?
Through a photographic essay, I seek to reflect upon, transmit and visualise the themes raised in the performance "Ma-Ma" by Yael Karavan and Rita Vilhena. The performance is elaborated around the relationship between Mother Earth and the mother / woman, and draws attention to questions of how we could translate and understand the way we relate to the earth, through acts towards a woman's body.
Reflecting the fragility and the imminent danger to which life on earth is subjected,
due to the increase of human demographic, our unreasonable and unconscious
ambitions, as well as climate change and global warming. Seeing Planet Earth as a
fertile woman’s body was a metaphor given in several traditions that focused on the
vital and nutritious aspects of nature when incarnating it in the form of a Mother /
Woman. So what happens nowadays to our mother Earth, as it’s being subjected to
extreme levels of pollution and carbon emissions, scandalous amounts of plastic,
monoculture, etc .. and how does it affect our own bodies? MA-MA observes the
effects our actions and the residues of our actions have on our planet and thus on
our bodies.
Text by Yael Karavan and Rita Vilhena.
The photographic work emerged from the translation of these performative acts into imagery. The aim is to visualise the body as territory, the mother and the earth as a giver of life, and the state of crisis in which we find ourselves as a result of climate change.
As I looked for the right visual language to respond to the performance of Ma-Ma, photography struck me as the right medium to dwell into the questions of the women-earth relation and its role and link to patriarchy. Dance and performance are disciplines that are linked to a certain moment and place, and given today’s difficulty to visit live shows, photographs and videos of the shows carry a special importance. In this sense, the photographs of the show help transmit the goals and ideas of the performance. They do not aim to be a literal translation in between mediums, but rather a second reading of the performatic work. The images try to be suggestive, leaving the space open for multiple readings. But by accentuating the collaborative and respectful character of the performance they also seek to represent the intermediate space between nature and woman.
