Funeral bundle of a femicide.

The action begins with the performer artist sitting on the floor in fetal position at the center of a room. Her partner distributes rectangular pieces of cloth to the spectators. These pieces have phrases written on them. The assistant places one of the pieces of cloth on the performance artist on the floor using a pin; it says: “He said I am incompetent”. The pubic then approaches the performance artist to pin the pieces of cloth they have unto her. The phrases on the clothes go along this line: “He told me that I am not worth anything,” “He told me that he hated me,” “He told me that I should not wear these clothes,” “He told me that I was a prostitute.”
When all the pieces of cloth have been pinned to the performance artist on the floor, the assistant covers her in red tape, fitting the pieces of cloth to her body in the manner of a funerary bundle. Then she proceeds to distribute another group of written pieces of cloth, this time of a different color, and the same process is repeated. The second layer of phrases read: “He slapped me,” “He kicked my stomach,” “He struck my head against the floor”. On having finished, the assistant surrounds the body in red take once again. It is still possible to see a bit of the body, hidden under the cloths.

Finally, the last group of cloths are distributed for the same action to be repeated. These read: “I felt alone,” “I felt fear,” “I felt empty,” “I felt that it was not worth anything.” The performer’s partner proceeds to surround the body, this time with red wool, and later she covers it with a black garbage bag: The woman in the middle of the room thus turns into the Funerary Bundle of a femicide.
This performance seeks to represent the complexity of gender violence and its layers. Most of femicides are constructed that way. They usually start with strong psychological violence that emotionally break the victims down. Then violence often escalates unto physical violence, which becomes more latent with increasingly aggressive pushes, blows and other forms of physical violence that continue to be accompanied by insults.
This performance is inspired in the retablo The layer of Violence. This work focuses on the process whereby this gradual escalation may lead to femicide, and takes into account the side of the victims and survivors who are often questioned about their lack of agency or initiative to escape their abusive situation. This performance seeks to answer to the question of: Why don´t they get away?
When your feet and hands are tied up with tapes and wools, and you are covered with pieces of cloth and a bag that does not allow you to see your surroundings, it is not that easy to get up.