DATE: DeCeMber 14th, 5.30 pm.
Performance Ale Bachlechner + film screening “Mixtape #1” by Phil Collins
CRYING AND LYING, Ale Bachlechner, 2023, 30′, German and English
“My mother cried for forty days and forty nights.
As long as I have known her, I have known her to cry.
I used to think that I would grow up to be a different sort of woman,
that I would not cry, and that I would solve the problem of her crying.” (Sheila Heti “Motherhood” 2018)
Crying and lying are two activities with which you can reliably ruin your life. Strikingly, they are often associated with femininity. The performance casts a spotlight on some intricacies of intergenerational trauma and the narrative dimensions of the family. Even though “the family” has proven to be anything but crisis-proof or safe, it’s still one of the most prevalent life goals.
Tightly interlacing live performance and prerecorded video the artist admits publicly to her strong craving for narrative and dramaturgy. The concept of a hopefully quick, linear and progressive succession of milestones in your so called private life and career is countered by the figure of the late bloomer who hits them late, in the wrong order or never. Drawing on autobiography and feminist authors the performance introduces a queering of reproductive temporalities.
Developed with Jonathan Kastl and Olivia Platzer.