Fina Ferrara V. 4
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
EL UMBRAL DE LA MEMORIA, or The Threshold of Memory when translated into English, is a two-hour performance by Fina Ferrara. This is an interactive and interdisciplinary performance which incorporates moving-image, light design, and installation. Also, EL UMBRAL DE LA MEMORIA contains several ‘artifacts’ and mementos from a previous performance, which is A-B-USED. These ‘artifacts’ and mementos are primarily divided into two portions, the entrance is a moving-image installation of A-B-USED, then leads to THE BODY REMEMBERS, a performance-based painting of red splatters, and after the performance, the audience is lead through web-like structures into a blood-soaked installation titled VESTIGE.
A-B-USED performance is displayed on duplicate screens, which exemplifies emphasis of the emotional impact. VESTIGE entails a bloody shirt with a makeshift giant ‘wound’ and THE BODY REMEMBERS is blood-soaked textiles, which are also crudely stitched together in some areas to symbolize the difficult healing process of sexual assault. Upon the conclusion of the performance, the audience was forced to exit through web-like structures which symbolizes the mental entanglement of post-traumatic stress, which in turn finally leads them to VESTIGE.
Now, the actual performance proper first entails Fina Ferrara against a stage with planned light-design. Fina’s shadow is meant to be duplicated and enlarged against a white screen behind her. In the beginning of the performance she motions like a bird, spreading her arms as wings. This theatrical display along with other evocative motions becomes exaggerated through the use of shadow and light design. The performance turns Fina Ferrara into a metaphysical entity which has powers far beyond the limitations of her body. We will find the shadows become a prop of haunting nature but also conceptually conveying the far reaches of the human soul beyond physical capacity. In essence, these shadows and the performance represents an out-of-body experience dealing with trauma and sequences which our minds cannot correlate with. We can regard the impact of the overarching shadows as the primary motif of the performance because the expansion of the actor’s body becomes pronounced as if she was exercising control over outsider lurking entities hiding, which seek to empower her physical being. The shadows are in essence an exaggeration and forceful impact of the Fina Ferrara’s will and power to control her fate as well as metaphysical status against the intruder.
In the latter portions of the performance, Fina Ferrara slowly covers herself and the entire stage in clay. Her movements range from positioning herself as an archer to motioning against her stomach to collapsing on the floor and curling into a ball. These sequences present themselves almost like a contemporary dance, there remains a rhythm and orchestration between the shifting stages of each tier of actions.
Between the shadows, interdisciplinary props, and the performance proper, we are left with a complex message about trauma, specifically by sexual assault. The impact of trauma has far reaching consequences beyond memory, Fina Ferrara exemplifies the metaphysical or ‘spiritual intrusion’ of how negative memories impact the body, specifically through the convulsion-like dances towards the latter part of the performance. These convulsions are most pronounced when Fina Ferrara is lying on the floor, covered in clay, as if seemingly dead, complete with an acted deceased face.
One does not need to experience sexual assault in order to relate towards EL UMBRAL DE LA MEMORIA, as anyone who has experienced profound trauma can correlate to the overarching emotional intrusion within Fina’s rhythmic movements integrated with conceptual props. These conceptual dances are a provocation to force the audience to confront the darkest parts of our minds. The shadows which lurk inside our psyche, haunted by experiences which have impact in a metaphysical sense becomes exemplified in Fina Ferrara’s performance through motions amidst light design and clay. EL UMBRAL DE LA MEMORIA by Fina Ferrara is an arthouse experience seeking to finalize closure by confronting the darkest shadows and depths within our minds. In this hidden realm of our psyche, the artist seeks and implores for us to find solace in truth, poetry in understanding…for we are not alone. Freedom in solidarity and art.
photo credit: Jorge Cárdenas
