Cuenca/Lauro
HEY JOE
Concept and direction:
Elisabetta Lauro
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by and with:
Stefania D'Onofrio, Elisabetta Lauro, Dania Mansi​
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production:
KRASS, Cuenca/Lauro (DE)​
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realised with the support of:
Invito alla Danza​
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“This is what I have to do: study words exactly as one studies plants, animals... and then, clean them of the mould, free them from the encrustations of centuries of tradition, invent new ones, and above all discard the most rotten ones, such as: sublime, duty, tradition, abnegation, humility, soul, modesty, heart, heroism, sentiment, pity, sacrifice, resignation, so as not to use them any more.” Goliarda Sapienza
HEY JOE is part of a broader project entitled OBEY that investigates the dimension of the feminine. Starting from the pivotal concept of the entire project, which is ‘disobedience’ understood as a necessary element for real self-knowledge, HEY JOE specifically questions the value of the terms rule, order and judgement, and the role they have assumed in the construction of our society. Is it possible that we have relied only on certain coordinates, giving up part of our humanity? Is it plausible to say that perhaps the time has come for a counter-trend?
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In HEY JOE three women embark on a game that is not exactly playful.
Taking on the burden of their own choice, the three players advance by proposing hierarchical and schematic formulas. Through pictures that are linked and unlinked at the same time, they build and dissolve different modes of relationship and interaction, trying together to find an alternative to a system that does not represent them.
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It all begins with an act of disobedience, with a small fall from Eden in which things have a predetermined order. Perhaps it is curiosity that drives us, perhaps doubt, but we choose to evade the rule and lean beyond it, beyond our assigned point.
The shift is only a few degrees and yet nothing is as it should be. What we are imbued with, passed on to us by our fathers' fathers, no longer resonates with us, and all virtues, truths and principles now betray a distortion that undermines their very nature. Here, where everything wavers and where absolutism finds no foothold, resides the feminine spirit, another dimension in which the indefinite is possibility.
HEY JOE
I wonder what the world looks like from there, Joe,
from the rock of your certainties,
I wonder how you always have an answer,
but never a question,
I wonder how you manage to draw
a clear line between all things
and say:
it is, it isn't, you can, you can't, you must, you mustn't.
How do you do it, Joe?
How can you never doubt?
How do you see the world, Joe?
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I had to listen to you, Joe,
I had to listen to you because you were everywhere;
you were in the words spoken, in the texts written,
in the glances exchanged, in the actions learned,
you were everywhere, Joe,
and you shouted at me to imitate you.
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But I can't imitate you, Joe,
because I'm not like you
and I don't work like you.
For me, your system is death, Joe.
Your order, your rules, your principles
are withered decorations,
they are lifeless shells, sharp as guillotines.
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For me, you are death, Joe,
and I must kill you.
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I must kill you to live, Joe,
I must kill you to breathe,
I must kill you to continue
asking myself
always:
why?
why?
why?
E.L.