Mother Tongue live performance, duration 6h, Residence Unlimited, NYC, 2023

I wrote  8 phrases on 8 different knives in Bulgarian, my mother tongue.

« I am your mother – I gave birth to you, so I can kill you !

Don’t eat chocolate,  you will become fat.

You don’t appreciate what I did for you.

Im your mother , so you will make what I want !

I don’t want to be a grandmother!

Don’t become a mother because your life will finish. »

I wrote on my tongue  « 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.