mutter - motor
/ An Audio Performance by and with Wheelchair Users
Seven daughters and sons ask their mothers: «What dreams did you have as a young woman?» Those asking are seated in wheelchairs and can only slightly move their bodies. What role did the extra burden play in the lives of the mothers? And how did the mothers deal with the knowledge about the shortened life expectancy of their children? In the audio performance, we listen closely to these dialogues and the groping after the personal past. And its re-enactment. What do the melodies and rhythms of speech tell us about our desires, about how we mutually ascribe roles – or offer consolation?
Loaded with our earliest experiences of needing protection and care and shaped by the Western ideology of sacrifice, the mother is a rigorous role model for all women with children. New gender relations, techniques, and laws are shaking things up in this setting: Childbirth is increasingly being separated not only from sexual union, but also from the mother’s body. In what direction are the – mixed – feelings of becoming free going? Will what we call “motherhood” come along with us in the spaceship when we have to leave the earth forever before the sun explodes? mutter – motor searches for tonal nuances in the “familiar” keys and opens up new realms of playing and listening.
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