On 16 May 2025 at the Forum Theatertreffen 1965-2025 in the foyer of the Berliner Festspiele, choreographer Carolina Mendonça offered insight into Something Is Approaching, a new piece that will celebrate its premiere in June.
Protests, loud or silent, were and still are frequently directed towards that which is framed as bogged down leadership, establishment, tradition. At the same time, if one so desired, it would be possible to trace a long line of countermovements with traditional narratives and images.
The work of Carolina Mendonça could be inscribed in the tradition of artists assigned a female gender at birth who have consciously broken with the expectations placed on them in their work. Artists who have pushed buttons with cold-bloodedness, calculation, and a (purported) propensity towards violence by shamelessly flaunting an interest in power in lieu of empathy, placidity, beauty, and flexibility. Shirin Neshat, Valie Export, Marina Abramovic, Niki de Saint Phalle – they and many other prominent girls with guns have become a part of the history of art and feminist movements.
The image of the female artist with a gun in hand is so emblematic that some have even been assigned the gun after the fact.1 In this same way, Mendonça’s work – although it is about anger, murder fantasies, and a focus on the experience of shooting – is far more striking for me through the absence of weapons, violent gestures, or harsh words. With a poker face and a friendly but detached tone, the artist relates changes she’s noticed in herself: from a new liquid flowing through her body and the dreams that propel her through the streets in broad daylight with murderous lust. She relates the story of the men who taught her how to shoot, who actually never discharge bullets but “simply let them fly”.
Precision, meditation, calm in your so-called “center”. The vocabulary for dance and firing practice is surprisingly similar. As trained choreographer Mendonça narrates, a second performer (Anna Fedoronchuk) takes off her shirt and hooks her up to a portable microphone. Mendonça ignores the previously silent figure in a way one can only ignore a very trusted person. The way one can only ignore touch that in essence does not touch you, how one can only ignore if there is nothing to win or lose. Bang bang.
©Fabian Schellhorn
It is precisely this lack of emotion that strikes me most, captivating me, at times unsettling me, and at other times making me laugh. Facial expressions, either stripped down or altogether lacking, catch my attention and play a central role. During the second, more choreographic part of the show, where two performers move across the white, dusty stage platform on all fours with their heads tucked in like headless animals, I am consequently less attentive. The conditions in the space are also no help. In the boundless, overfilled foyer of the Festspiele, most viewers could see little to nothing of the stage from their 19 euro seats. Such a shame for us and the artists whose work was hardly presented in the best light.
English translation by Melissa Maldonado
1For years, photos of painter Frida Kahlo with a plunging neckline and holding a gun with both hands at the level of her crotch, have been circulating the Internet. Photos that are actually a photo collage and, according to Monopol magazine, actually originate from 2021, 67 years after Kahlo’s death.
A preview of Something Is Approaching, by Carolina Mendonça was shown on 16 May 2025 at the Forum Theatertreffen 1965-2025. The performance premieres in June 2025 in Kortrijk, Belgium.
