Gina Alina Patilea (Romania, 1981) is a performance maker and actress based in Amsterdam. Gina's work focuses on the body as a site of excavation and relation to labour and identity.
SHE, PRACTICING THE FUTURE!
by Gina Alina Patilea
in collaboration with Leila Anderson
This work is an attempt to (re)discover and connect with (female) bodies at work. Trained bodies. Accessorized bodies. Labouring bodies. Cultural bodies. Maternal bodies. Past. Present.
How can one body prepare for an uncertain future?
The future is golden. The future is a fountain. The future is a ruin. The future needs you.
Starting from my own experiences, working from my own inheritance, and using the body as a tool, I set to uncover the ambivalence of constant preparation. If my body is a tool, what is its function, its uses and its possibilities. How can one body own its place in the world, a wide world of many bodies? What connection can I find to the bodies of those who came before me that might root my feet to the earth, give me the knowledge of the past to prepare for the future?
The work explores the physical process of practicing, acknowledging, critiquingand incorporating into the body what actions, modifications, tasks or rituals are needed, are wanted. This is a negotiation with present heritage in order to move forward. What is imposed from the outside and what is chosen from the inside? Breaking things down into meticulous acts helps. Practicing mind over body and body over mind.
How can one body prepare for an uncertain future?
The future is golden. The future is a fountain. The future is a ruin. The future needs you.
Starting from my own experiences, working from my own inheritance, and using the body as a tool, I set to uncover the ambivalence of constant preparation. If my body is a tool, what is its function, its uses and its possibilities. How can one body own its place in the world, a wide world of many bodies? What connection can I find to the bodies of those who came before me that might root my feet to the earth, give me the knowledge of the past to prepare for the future?
The work explores the physical process of practicing, acknowledging, critiquingand incorporating into the body what actions, modifications, tasks or rituals are needed, are wanted. This is a negotiation with present heritage in order to move forward. What is imposed from the outside and what is chosen from the inside? Breaking things down into meticulous acts helps. Practicing mind over body and body over mind.