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re-c(O)unting I: self-exploring bodies, stories, laboratories
○ pam X ella
Artistic-scientific research investigating the colonial history between Europe and Latin America and relating it to the colonial approach medicine has had on female-assigned bodies.
Created with and for the BioArt and Design (BAD) Award 2023
2023
Format experimental documentary, installation, and lecture performance
Software TouchDesigner, Resolume, Spout, Ableton Live
Media performance, film, wooden sculpture, textiles, shells, glass objects, water, medical instruments, dildo, organic matter, video projection, endoscopic camera, microscope, midi-controllers
Creation and performance by pamela varela and ella hebendanz
Script, camera, and post-production by ella hebendanz and pamela varela
Sound art by Concepción Huerta
Scientific research with Joris Koene (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Spatial design with georgina pantazopoulou
Construction design and camera assistance by Tim Schütze
Styling with persophino
Performance technology with Lucien Nicou
Performance mentorship by Margherita Pevere
Voice art by Victoria Martínez, ella hebendanz, and pamela varela
Installation construction by pamela varela, ella hebendanz, Tim Schütze, Lars Dorren, Stamatis Tsigkanos, and the MU team
Special thanks to Amos Peled, Laila Auburger, Marlot Meyer, De Besturing, Jaap Meijers, Dennis Slootweg, Joris van den Einden, Jill Wilkinson, Krista van der Wilk, Daniela Huerta, Giulia Tomasello, Isabel Farina, Cristina Dezi, Jeroen Meijer, Wessel Verrijt, among others :)
Exhibited at
“Plotting Patterns and Portals”, MU, Eindhoven, NL, 2023-2024 (film, installation, performance)
“Sexual is Political”, Post P_rn Arts Fest, Warsaw, PL, 2024 (film)
“Inspired by...”, Art Laboratory, Berlin, DE, 2024 (artist talk)
La Nature Festival, Vielsalm, BE, 2023 (installation)
Upcoming
Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City, MX, 2024 (performance)
Casa del Lago UNAM, Mexico City, MX (film, performance)
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re-c(O)unting is an artistic-scientific research questioning how we can transform the production of knowledge; it is an empowering journey from the transgenerational trauma our lands and bodies store. Deconstructing the binarisms between nature-technology, science-spirituality, male-female, we zoom out and into the colonial history between Europe and Latin America and link it to the colonial approach medicine has had on female-assigned bodies (i.e. the fallopian tubes are named after Gabriele Falloppio and Colombia after Christopher Colombus). Delving into our deepest insides, we unveil the magick of science and retell the stories.
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The work is a collaboration between the artist duo ella hebendanz (DE) and pamela varela (MX). It was born as an attempt to investigate the link between their roots and create postcolonial lines of exchange. The scientific collaboration took place with Joris Koene (NL), a biologist researching hermaphroditic snails, reproduction, and biological data transmission.
re-c(O)unting
is both a film and a performance. The film stands on its own, while the performance is a live reenactment of the story-line through the means of our bodies. It takes the shape of a lecture performance in which we, pamela varela and ella hebendanz, are live-mixing excerpts of the film with spoken word, live camera footage, performative actions, and interactions with organic matter on stage. The visual results are being projected on a screen behind us. We are accompanied by Concepción Huerta who mixes the soundscape live.
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This inspired the work to follow the story of Hermaphroditus—the child of Hermes and Aphrodite—a being with both female and male characteristics—who, as a metaphor, brought to the work the queerifying of the binaries it portrays. We follow threads of Greek mythology to discover how these archetypes still impact our current belief systems, while uncovering the deeply gendered but also queer aspects of these stories. Gender fluidity travels through the narrative via the fluids of the body and the water of the sea, to eventually spiral into a multitude of viewpoints— attempting to decolonize and depatriarcalize the single-lens way science has been produced, while self-exploring our bodies as an act of reclaiming and reappropriation.
We use cunt to refer to vulva while reappropriating the swear word. Count means to acknowledge, to tell a story, and to count numbers, so it links to mcomputation. The O alludes to the big O, which refers to the orgasm but is also an algorithmical term. The circle is a hypnotic shape. re-c(O)unting encompasses the stories to be retold, the cunts to be acknowledged, computation as a field to be reclaimed, and the altered states to be experienced.
We use cunt to refer to vulva while reappropriating the swear word. Count means to acknowledge, to tell a story, and to count numbers, so it links to mcomputation. The O alludes to the big O, which refers to the orgasm but is also an algorithmical term. The circle is a hypnotic shape. re-c(O)unting encompasses the stories to be retold, the cunts to be acknowledged, computation as a field to be reclaimed, and the altered states to be experienced.
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Gender fluidity travelsthrough the narrative via the fluids of the body and the water of the sea, to eventually spiral into a multitude of viewpoints— attempting to decolonize and depatriarcalize the single-lens way science has been produced, while self-exploring our bodies as an act of reclaiming and reappropriation.