Research Artist in Performance, Actionism, and Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs).
Site Under Construction
Body Manipulation Research
Body Manipulation Research is a performance practice that uses ephemeral materials and action-based scores to engage with a passive body. The process involves an active and a passive actor, with roles that can shift and adapt to varying degrees of activity or passivity. The active actor works with the passive body to either elevate its energy or guide it away from a certain state—always with care—supporting both in moving toward altered states of consciousness (ASCs). In these scores, the body is treated in a non-hierarchical manner. Hands and stomachs are not different than genitals, care is placed in the treatment of all tissues. The scores fluctuate between bringing attention to the superficial, skin level, and to the organ level. Drawing and manipulating as if to map out the organs can provide cartographies of the interior of the body. Drawing and molding the visible and the invisible: the veins, blood, nerves, bones, skin, organs, scars, birth marks, freckles, tattoos, pores, pimples, facia, ligaments, articulations, memories, and the chakras, are taken into account.
Water into Wine III is a ritual of Death, Chaos, and Purification.
Through ritualistic repetition, passive actors transmute via sensory bodily overload, through their interaction with matter: charcoal,wine and seawater. The participants pass from bathtub one to three, filled with these, or other materials, and undergo a transformation both collective and personal. Drawing on various Pagan, Buddhist, and Catholic ceremonies and focusing on states of bardo and trance induction, the work is realized through the transfiguration of tangible materials in incorporeal forms.
Body manipulation scores are long-durational and aim to test and transcend the psycho-physical limits of the subject by means of sensory-overload, voluntary-stillness, and passivity. During the performance the passive actor completely forfeits themself to the care of the group, as to arrive at a different and sensible mind-space. Active actors may reach ASCs through strenuous forced physical exhaustion. This has a secondary effect, the creation of a strong group cohesion through the shared symbolical experience, similar to those observed in anthropological studies in archaic societies. Observing this group dynamic helped establish principles of the practice, which specifically explores group-structures and rituals as ways to reshape collective realitiesand behaviors. Water into Wine III’s practice is based on Body Manipulation Research, drawings, smell, and color charts, as well as indepth written and recorded testimonials from participants (actors), which includes their own works and additions to the creative process. The expanded and elaborated version of the work in 2026 will unfold in a non-hierarchical manner with actors making decisions about their own course during the performance. These dialogues inherently encompass the experience of olfactory, auditiory, and gustatory stimuli, to enhance and dilinate from the visual experience.
Credits:
A work by Madeline Marone, conceived with:
Actors:
Alina Trionow L. Meïko Touraille
Ainara López
Marco Galletti
Elisabeth Tretzmüller
Johannes Jakob Rass
Gabriel Shields Hanau
Video Editing by Madeline Marone. Filming by Alex Mur at Ginevra Film.
Singing (live) by: Ainara López
Sound: “The Glass Bead Game.”
