Domestic Violence

concept and direction Markus Öhrn

##general.period##:: 21 - 22/01/23
##general.room##:: Montjuïc

Show completed

Timetable

18:00

Running time

5 h (allowed to enter and leave the hall)

Place

Sala Fabià Puigserver - stalls

Language

Show no text

Price

€7,5 - €15

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Description

In a 5-hour performance (allowed in and out), Swedish artist Markus Öhrn examines the banality and brutality of domestic violence. A reality that with confinement has been aggravated, and that is a hidden pandemic, deeper and broader.

Ikea’s white furniture, flowers on the table, the picture on the wall, a cuckoo clock... a home that could be reduced anywhere to its most essential elements, and in turn a breeding ground for terrible pain and suffering. With this work Öhrn examines the edge of domestic violence no using dialogues. Together with his artistic team he makes an expedition to the dark side of the intimate relationship patterns, role models and gender stereotypes.

Markus Öhrn works with real statistics and bases his work on domestic violence cases that have come to court. He has used this material to develop a five-hour performance for two performers and a pianist.

"We all know a lot about domestic violence. We all know someone who has been exposed to it. Unfortunately it is part of our lives and our culture, a product of patriarchal society, a product of the logic of romantic love in which one is supposed to belong to the other for the rest of his life. (...) To make this piece it was very important not to do 'entertainment', not to try to come to any conclusions, not to expose the public to real violence. And real violence is not just to be stuck, it’s to expect to be stuck. For people who have been exposed to it, it is mostly about 'when it will happen', and in fact there is almost a cathartic effect when it happens because then you know, as a victim, that at least it will not happen again soon. (...) We wanted to create a twofold environment: closing our eyes is a world and, opening them, another, to symbolize the hidden presence of this violence. For me it was very important to create this connection with the public and with violence without making a bloody spectacle. (...) We must remember that, today, it is only in Barcelona that statistics tell us that more than 1000 women live totally terrified in their home, the place where they should feel safe but that instead it is a terrible place, and this piece wants to reflect that the problem is much more complex."
_Markus Öhrn

Show premiered on 08/06/2018 at Wiener Festwochen.

Other shows of Katharsis 2023