Ekdysis, 40’
Venue: MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts
“Ekdysis’”-the biological term referring to the process of shedding the external layer of the skin in reptiles- is an ongoing project, which is displayed through performances, installations and video. In this iteration, Niya B engages with her own internalised toxicity and the elements of water and air in a ritual of shedding skin and letting go. During the performance Niya will create an ephemeral installation.
Female subjectivities as well as nature are seen as wild and irrational under patriarchy, and thus have been subjugated and ‘tamed’ throughout his-tory. Misogynism and assumptions of feminine inferiority are embedded in Western culture, from antiquity to our present times. In her performance, Niya B works against the notion of linear time to trace back the oppression of the feminine. In this occasion, she uncovers an epigram attributed to 4th century Alexandrian poet Palladas, and she copies the words on each page of her diary.
The text reads: “Homer showed that every woman is bad and dangerous,
chaste and harlot, both are destruction”.