This performance is part of a series of three performances titled Cierra la Boca (Shut your Mouth), that I did in Madrid during the 26th, 28th and 29th of December 2013.
28/12/2013, 16:00 Ministry of Justice, Madrid. Duration: 1hour and 45 minutes.
I did this performance as a response to the change in the law regarding abortion in Spain, which the Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon wants to put through. The current law follows a model of stages, by which women can choose to have an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The reform proposed by Gallardon is equivalent to the abortion law from 1985, whereby women will not be able to voluntarily interrumpt pregnancy, with the exception of cases of rape, serious health risks, and some cases of foetal malformation.
I draw a uterus on my abdomen with lipstick, then proceed to paint my lips with it, together with the palms of my hands. I go over my lips, one at a time, with my finger, to then draw an opening over the uterus, drawing a similarity between my mouth and the vaginal opening. After this, I extract a lump of red wax from my mouth, and shape it in the form of a foetus, only to re-shape it into a ball and put it back into my mouth. Then I smudge my lipstick across my face and seal my mouth with black tape. After a long pause, I take the cross off my lips and place it on the ground before me. I repeat the action with the wax and tape 28 times, building a menstrual calendar on the floor.
My intention with this performance is to construct an image of the female body as active in the process of creation (reproduction). In my view, the experience of the menstrual cycle is not something that 'happens' to the body, it is something that forms part of my personhood. Making babies, literally, out of wax, with my own hands, and then returning them to the inside of my body, is my way of performing the menstrual cycle, to propose an understanding of the body and its processes undetached from the condition of being an individual. In this context, the interruption of pregnancy is a right of the individual, which happens to be female.
Drawing the comparison between the uterus and the mouth allowed me to explore the notion of freedom of choice versus oppression in direct relation to reproduction.
