The series I’M A UTERUS >< PROCREATORS & WARRIORS IN RESISTANCE takes place on three evenings in the CORDILLERA Raum für Körper und Utopien (Space for Bodies and Utopias). I attend the performance ANUNCIA EN EL PEDREGAL by Silvia Ospina on 19 April 2025.
I enter the intimate setting in CORDILLERA. Two video installations are visible and rushing water is audible in the background. One of the videos shows the performer in nature, face mostly hidden, legs and arms beating fitfully from her body, tossing away, gathering up, holding tight. In another video, the dancer is in a red-lit room. She’s performing slow and deliberate movements. There is a round mirror foil in the space. Upon closer inspection, I discover an invitation in the mirror: Write an “intention” for a woman/women, us, or everyone present. I look in the mirror, see a distorted image, and write.
„She’s always on the move…“
Once the spoken introduction is over, Silvia Ospina takes to the stage. Her movements begin slowly and cautiously. Her body bends from side to side. It calls to mind a wind blowing her – but where? The Middle Age music of a clavichord resounds in contrast to her Andic clothing. Ospina’s body creates precise forms and lines, both in relation to itself and the space. With a very wide skirt, the dancer creates new movement patterns and images, whipping it forward and backward, twirling it upwards. I see in the creases of the skirt a giant vulva – birth, origin, nature, strength. Suddenly, the dancer falls to the ground. She rests with her head on a stone. It does not seem comfortable. Does she have to maintain this connection?
The tone of the piece shifts. The clothing, initially neat and trim, no longer appears to fit the performer’s body. A stone object topped with a spigot and donning a red ribbon is tended to and nurtured. Although it seems to me like a hopeless undertaking, the tenderness and perseverance of the movements leaves room for hope. Small, quick steps that trace circles on the ground and move the dancer effortlessly throughout the space feel ritualistic. She grasps the skirt again and twirls it around herself. This also produces a circular pattern and an impressive sound. The performer now appears indomitable.
A golden coin appears. The dancer pushes it in front of her, kicking it away and stepping on it forcefully several times. Yet it refuses to disappear. It is now part of the scenery, even if it fails to blend in with the symbiosis of nature and body. Ospina examines the coin more closely, then drops it on the mirror with the intentions for women. Our intentions shatter with a bang…
I am touched by the rousing story, the precisely performed movements, and the symbolism. But one thought persists: if we’re talking about women, are we also considering trans women? The explicit connection of the uterus to reproduction and being a woman ignores the fact that there are women without a uterus as well as men with a uterus; non-binary and intersexual persons and other non-women who reproduce; and last but not least, people who do not associate their uteri with reproduction. The insistence on biological characteristics adheres to patriarchal thought patterns and is experiencing a dangerous renaissance in the form of arguments used by right-wing movements worldwide to justify unequal power distribution. I would like to see artistic works where social diversity is a “warrior in resistance” and conventional categories are called into question as a way to counteract this trend.
English translation by Melissa Maldonado
ANUNCIA EN EL PEDREGAL, by Silvia Ospina was performed on 19 April 2025 at CORDILLERA.
