The exhibition Anna Maria Maiolino – Poetic Earth, on view at MAAT from 25 March, will feature a performance on the eve of its opening to the public, a highly emblematic work that the artist originally conceived in 1981, under the name ENTREVIDAS, as a manifesto against torture and in favour of democratic openness in Brazil.
 

The performance uses hundreds of chicken eggs scattered on the floor. The act of walking through this physical ‘minefield’ transforms the fragility of life and the risk of destruction into an experience of tension and resistance.

In the new version, entitled KA, Anna Maria Maiolino incorporates the gesture of raised hands. The artist researched the origin of this sign in ancient Egyptian civilisation, where the hieroglyph KA (two raised arms) represented the life force, the spirit and the embrace. In contemporary times, although the gesture signifies surrender in contexts of war, Maiolino reinterprets it as a poetic-political plea for PEACE and DISARMAMENT. KA was presented for the first time 
at MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand.

The act of ‘walking on eggshells’ in the newly recovered territory became a gesture about the right to transit and occupy democratic spaces, transforming the work into a manifesto about the sovereignty of culture in the public sphere.

At MAAT, ‘with her arms raised and palms open, the artist will walk on the eggs, reaffirming the ethical commitment of the 1981 work: the affirmation of life and the rejection of violence and war conflicts that plague the world today,’ says Maiolino.

Participants: Anna Maria Maiolino and members of the artist’s studio.

NOTE: The eggs used in this performance will subsequently form part of the REvitaliza Biomateriais Project at Fab.CPL – FabLab Casa Pia Lisboa, an initiative aimed at promoting learning in the field of sustainability, including, amongst other aspects, the development of bioceramic pastes from eggshells for the production of objects. 

Useful information

Date: 24/03

Time: 18.00–18.45

Location: Praça do Carvão