In Lars Von Trier's Melancholia (2011) a planet several times bigger than Earth threateningly approaches and finally collides with Earth - our planet disappearing inside it, after liquefying us inside a wave of fire. And yet planets are not supposed to collapse like that, they are supposed to keep well traced, regular, predictable orbits around one another, determined by their density, the bigger keeping the smaller ones in their elliptical orbits. Is it possible that the name of Von Trier's planet, "Melancholia" is just a very straightforward metaphor for sadness engulfing us and preventing us from starting any revolt and taking any action? Why the four moons of planet Jupiter carry the names of Jupiter's sexual abuse victims (Io, Callisto, Europa, Ganimedes)? The presence of another person in the same space as us immediately forces us to take position as soon as we detect that presence. Indoors or outdoors, we immediately calibrate the distance that separates us and the rank we respectively occupy in society, adjusting our behaviour, our way of acknowledging that person. If we are unsure about how to classify that person, we appear alert and restless until finally that person makes it clear what her/his expectations are towards us. All these considerations determine each and every performance that has been presented at the Mattatoio "Conosco un labirinto che è una linea retta" from October 21 to January 22: Two Planets Have Been Colliding for Thousands of Years, The Labyrinth of Female Freedom, The Sphinx, The Messenger, and The little object <a>. All these considerations determine our daily interactions. The subversion or rupture of the established laws that govern social interaction often result in cataclysms as overwhelming as the one portrayed by Lars Von Trier in his movie.
Dora García is an artist, teacher and researcher who lives and works in Barcelona and Oslo. As an artist, she has participated in numerous international art exhibitions including the Münster Skulptur Projekte (2007), the Venice Biennale (2011, 2013, 2015), the Sydney Biennial (2008), the São Paulo Biennial (2010), Documenta 13 (2012), the Gwangju Biennial (2016), the osloBiennalen, Art Encounters Timisoara and the AICHI Triennial (2019). In 2021 she has developed projects in the Fotogalleriet Oslo, Netwerk Aalst, the Mattatoio di Roma, and the Colomboskope Festival in Sri Lanka. Her work is largely performative and deals with issues related to community and individuality in contemporary society, exploring the political potential of marginal positions, paying homage to eccentric characters and to antiheroes, who have often been the center of her films projects, such as The Deviant Majority (2010), The Joycean Society (2013) and Segunda Vez (2018).