WATER INTO WINE III
Long-durational, sensory, action-based performance (2023)
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 realities and 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 Maddie Marone, conceived with:
Actors:
Alina Trionow
L. Meïko Touraille
Ainara López
Marco Galletti
Elisabeth Tretzmüller
Johannes Jakob Rass
Gabriel Shields Hanau
Montage by Maddie Marone.
Filming by Alex Mur at Ginevra Film.
Singing (live) by: Ainara López
Sound: “The Glass Bead Game.”
Produced by: HEAD Genève
text by: Maddie Marone and L. Meïko Touraille.
