Heartbreak is not just a feeling; it is often described as the starting point of revolutionary thinking. In this performance, two performers work on stage with rocks, drums, and their voices. Through music, sound, and prayer, they call on the folk saint Wilgefortis, known as the protector of heartbroken people.

Wilgefortis, also called Sint Ontkommer, is a legendary bearded woman whose violent and tragic story, and whose crossing of gender norms, has long inspired those resisting oppression. The performers explore voices beyond gender categories while using the sounds and movements of hard physical labour, such as breaking rocks.

The performance asks: who is allowed to strike, and who is made to receive the blow in today’s society? When the rocks are hit, the space begins to vibrate. The choreography grows out of breath, voice, and song, pointing to a strange and subversive humour in the process of freeing oneself — and each other. The work also includes a tribute to Ulrike Ottinger’s 1981 cult film Freak Orlando, reimagined as a punk opera concert.

Giulia Damiani is an artist based in Amsterdam who works with text and performance. Her practice creates provocative performative situations, often starting from a sound investigation, posing urgent questions about violence, language, and a mythical and ecological territory. Her latest production, "Heart Brake" (2024), was created at Centrale Fies and presented internationally with the support of the Mondriaan Fonds, AFK, and Voordekunst. It will be staged again in December 2025 in Frascati, Amsterdam. In 2022, she completed her PhD based on her performance practice, entitled "Porous Places: Eruptive Bodies", at the Department of Art at Goldsmiths College (London), writing extensively about the feminist group Le Nemesiache in Naples and reactivating their work. She edited the book "Ritual and Display", published by If I Can't Dance in 2022. She teaches at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. www.giuliadamiani.eu 

Mercedes Azpilicueta (Argentina, 1981) has been living and working in the Netherlands for several years. Her artistic practice gathers various characters from the past and the present who address the vulnerable or collective body from a decolonial feminist perspective. In fluid, associative connections she counters rigid narratives of history in an attempt to dismantle them and make room for the affective and dissident voices to emerge. As such, her work manifests in performative and sculptural installations being inspired by speculative and fictional Latino literature, Neo-Baroque art history, contemporary popular culture and new materialism theory. Through collaborative and interdisciplinary practices, she combines “precarious”, craft-based techniques –historically associated with domestic obsolete knowledge– with industrialized productions.

She studied at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Buenos Aires and earned her Master’s degree at the Dutch Art Institute/ArtEZ in Arnhem. In 2015-2016, she was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Van Abbemuseum, the Stedelijk Museum, the Fries Museum, the Barbican Centre and Gasworks in London, IMMA in Dublin, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, CentroCentro in Madrid, Kunstverein Göttingen and during the Busan Biennale. In 2021, Azpilicueta was nominated for the Prix de Rome, and in 2017 she received the Pernod Ricard Fellowship. Website: https://www.mercedesazpilicueta.info

Credits:

Concept, director and writer: Giulia Damiani

Performed and developed by: Giulia Damiani in collaboration with Luísa Saraiva

Production and artistic advice: Isobel Dryburgh 

Sound design: Leroy Chaar

Costume and scene design: Publik Universal Frxnd 

Stage manager: Fivos Petropoulos 

Rock-splitting training: Alberto Damiani

With the support of: Amsterdams Fonds Voor den Kust 23-24, Centrale Fies, Mondriaan Fonds 24, Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose is a rose, Voordekunst

Residency support: Dance Space Destiny (Amsterdam), If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution (Amsterdam), CRL (Porto), Centrale Fies (Dro), De Sloot (Amsterdam)

Special acknowledgements for the support: Sara Giannini, Jodi Gilbert, Fariborz Karimi, Mark Redele, Barnaby Savage, Merel Severs, Angeliki Tzortzakaki and Dan Walwin