Performance Braiding Connections

Drawing from gestures of the installation Weaving Connections at the east wing of the Church of San Lorenzo, three performers connect the two waters that flow around Ocean Space through a large textile braid. 

By linking these different waters, the performance transcends the notion that different waters are separate from each other, a misconception rooted in categorizations that express divisions over interconnectedness. As the braid is carried from one water to another, a physical and spiritual engagement explores our human connection to water and the necessity to manifest that connection into action. 

The performance embodies the concept of movement explored in the artwork, reflected not only in textile elements and images of water and collective braiding shifting through the exhibition space, but also through the audience’s movement and the braid continuing its journey, connecting to the waters of the site.

Verena Melgarejo Weinandt is a German-Bolivian artist, researcher, curator, and educator. She is currently part of the ERC-funded artistic research project “Repatriates” at the Central European University in Vienna and has previously worked within the DFG Research Group “Knowledge in the Arts” at the University of the Arts Berlin. Working with performance, textiles, photography, video, and installations she addresses colonial and patriarchal structures, using her body and (ancestral) history as tools for collective transformation, exploring how our relationships with the fictive, the imaginary, and non-human beings are ways to (re)construct both individual and collective identities. Her artistic practice has been exhibited internationally at venues including La Virreina Centre de la Imatge (Barcelona), Manifesta 14 (Pristina), the 16th Bienalsur (Buenos Aires), Bienal Sur (Cúcuta 2019), nGbK Berlin, and Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), as well as at various international film festivals. She has also curated exhibitions at the Weltmuseum Wien, Wiener Festwochen, and District School Without Center (Berlin).