Performance

Chrysalis

Chrysalis, 70 x 70cm. Photography.
Shown at Entransito 2024. Collective international exhibition around Migrations and Transitions, by Hamburg-based curator, Clemencia Labin.

From latin chrysal(I)is-from Greek Krusallis, from Krusos ¨gold¨(because of the gold color or metallic sheen of some pupae).
A transitional state.

“Upon its maiden flight from its chrysalis, a butterfly is utterly transformed from its former state. Not only is it inexplicably far more beautiful than it had been, but also it performs a function for nature that is the opposite of that of its caterpillar incarnation. Instead of munching its way mindlessly through vegetation, the butterfly flits from flower to flower, partaking of very little, destroying nothing, and inadvertently serves as a pollinator, enabling more flowers to bloom.” (Leonard Shlain, Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution)

We created Chrysalis in a cave on the coast of Ibiza. I had arrived alone a few years earlier, and the island embraced me and made possible my transformation and the spreading of my wings.
I covered my daughter's skin and mine with clay from the heart of this land, in organic connection with it. And we wrapped ourselves symbolically in isothermal gold, alluding to the drama we are living in the Mediterranean with the massive arrival of people seeking to survive, and so many who lose their lives in the attempt.
I am one of the privileged who have had the opportunity, like a butterfly that emerges from its chrysalis, to leave a life behind and look for a new one.
With our eyes closed, we dreamed of the evolution of our species, where we would increasingly behave like butterflies, who transform from the worm that frantically devours vegetation, to become pollinators, creators of life.
And thus heal our relationship with nature and with each other.

Eliana Perinat, 2024