Magdalenas Prayer
Silence.
A prayer sounds softly.
Calling, singing,
complaining to God.
Hands pave their way.
Limbs emerge creepingly.
A female body -
unmasking itself,
gets packaged, entangled,
degraded.
Shelter, refuge
and cry for help?
Guilt, shame and blemish -
are pushing the body forward.
"Magdalenas Prayer" is a spiritual journey.
Out of a combination of language, object
and movement developes a "Lamentation-
performance“. It reflects the role of women
in different social contexts. Analogously to
an Indonesian text and its German
translation actions and movements are
taking place. They are reflecting and
concretising what has been said.
The performance is a result of a cooperation
with Lena Simanjuntak and is performed in
ecclesiastical contexts. It actively takes part
in the ritualised everyday life of the churches
and asks for predetermined gender role
assignment and stigmatizations. Present
parishioners and clergy directly get involved
into the action in order to establish direct
contact with the thematic.
Lena Simanjuntak works as an indonesian
director with marginalized groups of women
in Indonesia. In this context, she lives with
prostitutes, workers in plantages or with
fisherwomen, peasant women and slum
dwellers. Against the backdrop of painful
events caused by political unrests 1998 in
Indonesia she wrote the text "Magdalenas Gebet".
