Greed. Lust. Addiction.
Essay by Jovana Reisinger
Immoral tales for Europe; creation and downfall of a civilisation. Phia Ménard’s piece «La Trilogie des Contes Immoraux (pour Europe)» hauls out the big guns. While Ménard, dressed as a warrior, creates a cardboard version of the Athenian Parthenon onstage, she also constructs a queer, mythological version of a fictitious Europe. She reveals the bigger picture, continues to change perspectives, attacks patriarchy and neoliberalism, traces power structures. Submission, violence, destruction are constant companions. The piece is so visually stunning that an attempt to explain, retell or reify it would not live up to the epic. Author Jovana Reisinger takes Ménard’s immoral tales as a starting point for a chain of associations in the form of the following text. The connections move between subjective experiences, feelings, judgements and the society that formed them.
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Rome was not built in a day – yet levelling something to the ground takes considerably less time. By destructive forces (war, hatred, humanity), or the weather. Such as rain, which suddenly falls onto the stage macerating the meticulously built, temple-like cardboard construct until irretrievably ruining it. The contemplation of creation. The contemplation of decay. Lust, greed, lust. Theatre can create a space that way. Cinema too. Art in general is capable of creating such states in the consumer. This being at someone’s mercy. A familiar and at times extremely stimulating state. Wanting to stoop and to give oneself away. The arousal experienced thereby is dependent on who or what is in the position of power. Who holds the power over us. Whom we submit to. Like when we have just fallen in love or are faced with the absurdly hard reality of lovesickness. Voyeurism. In any case. It is always in the forefront. We cannot do without. Looking, even staring. Gaping. Observing a first date can be so uncomfortable. A wound, a meanness, an injustice, a discrimination, an accident, a misunderstanding, an argument, a conversation, a yearning look, a surprising gesture. Does the beauty of the moment exist, or would it be better to discover beauty so that it would be worth having looked in the first place? Having paid for a performance, a film, a text? The cost-benefit calculation. It would be worthwhile if you could take something home. At least, a good story. Because even the worst, lousiest art must be good for something. Wasting time—another term for the pleasure of experiencing it
To make things clear: the form of this text does not necessarily reflect the quality, style or staging of Phia Ménard’s piece. The urge not to be restricted was already triggered when reflecting on the title, which was translated into English as «The Trilogy of Immoral Tales (for Europe)». Words such as immoral or indecent, offensive or despicable immediately put me in a state of intoxication. An intellectual sequence, even though this is too vague, it is an intellectually simultaneously existing structure, like in reality. Rhizome-like, of course. Interconnections, everything is connected, also here. Everything relates to everything, can only exist in the density. Europe. Such a big term, such a beautiful flag, a possibility of identification. Immoral tales for this Europe. Where we are. Where fights are fought.
Immoral offers. Who wouldn’t turn them down? Networks, surveillance, work relationships, neoliberalism, patriarchy, strategies of dominance and submission nonchalantly lead me to dating apps, dick pics, exploitative occupations and areas of activity, classism and elite formation, insurmountable obstacles and infamies. Where do I stand, excuse me, not losing sight of the big picture, where do we stand, even though in this text I can only write for myself?
It is hot. Nature is still somewhat green, but it seems as if we were already significantly more advanced in the year. I post a picture of the smouldering sky in a chat. Dystopian beauty. In response, I receive a heart. Later, a picture of full, plump lips and a hand holding an ice cream. I melt. Mental health. Assaults. I continue to return to violence. Submissiveness. Which structures actively and concretely stipulate it and which ones effortlessly, yet barely noticeably coerce us into self-abandonment? Shame, pain and the surrounding rites. Last week, a man grasped my arm and said it wouldn’t be nice if I just left him standing there. Another man rubbed his penis against my buttocks during an official photo shoot. I continued to smile into the camera. Understanding of roles, boundaries, the question in which fights one wants to invest.
On Instagram I read «being nice is the new cool». I had to laugh. Resilience. Horny for stress in order to manage even the most absurd task. Over-performer. Collateral damages are willingly accepted. On a private as well as on a macro-social level. They are the simplest questions: Who produces my clothing, where does my vegetable come from, whom do I desire? How are things produced, who has a say, who receives funds to tell a story? Structures. Overheating. Offers. Exit strategy. There are so many. Which one fits? A question of timing. As always. At the end, everything is always a question of timing. How much time is just about enough? How long can it last until it becomes unbearable, ruined or endlessly beautiful? How long does the audience remain seated, with high energy and expectation? How long do we withstand the fact that nothing is said, that we do not understand what happens on this stage, do not know how to behave? The mean thing: we almost always know only afterwards. Interesting. Hopefully, it isn’t too late then. And even if: until next time. Greed. Lust. Addiction.
«La Trilogie des Contes Immoraux (pour Europe)» by Phia Ménard & Cie. Non Nova will be performed in Switzerland for the first time at Zürcher Theater Spektakel on 18 August 2022. Further information and tickets.