Die Mauer als Kondom
(The Wall as a Condom)
2021
The work is composed by a two-channel video installation, the result of two performances in the city of Leipzig, Germany. In one of them, I walk around with a latex full-body catsuit around the city centre of the former socialist city, turned into an open air shopping mall after the german reunification. My outfit grants me a sense of anonymity, a sort of full-body condom. I wander around and catch the looks of some pedestrians, while others continue to stare at their phones, unbothered. In the second one, I am inside the Matthäikirchhof, the former headquarters of the GDR's state secret service, the Stasi. This time, I am most vulnerable, exposed, unclothed. My skin is the only barrier to the outside world. To walk naked around inside this building fulfils an act of defiance, in a place of authoritarian persecution. I wander around and urinate on some spots in an act of revenge. My most private matters turn public.