Mother Tongue live performance, duration 6h, Residence Unlimited, NYC, 2023
I wrote 8 phrases on 8 different knives in Bulgarian, my mother tongue. For six hours, I cleaned all the knives by licking them with my « mother » tongue until the written phase disappeared. I « shaved » and « cleaned » my tongue us well. I « sharpen’d » it like a pencil. And spit out the ink.
Mother tongue could « care » but could also hurt. It could erase and provoke pain. It could defend and attack you. Mother’s love is the first battle in our life and we confront it from the moment of our conception.