Take My Blood and Write on the Soil …

Take My Blood and Write on the Soil, the People Must Know That We Are Being Taken Prisoners
An anti-colonial bow to the Cromotex union by Daniela Ortiz

Insurgent textile workers, magical cotton plants, and Haitian resistance fighter Franswa Makandal team up through historical magical poetry to hold Europe accountable and tell the story of the possibility and reality of resistance. A colorful puppet and mask play, affectionate, playful, combative, full of poetic justice & anti-colonial furor, without shying away from pronounced profession, without fear of play, fun and radicalism. 

In four images, with an impressive cast of characters (worker, maroon, politician, cotton plant, coca leaf, rubber, tobacco, sugar,...) Daniela Ortiz loosely follows the threads of cotton processing through a colonialized world. The narrative moves associatively, and in images drawn "with bold lines." Colorful puppets proclaim bitter truths and sing rather heartfelt Swiss children's songs of deadly revenge against exploiters. A mask exaggerates the grimace of its wearer into the grotesque that is a reality. In this way, the Peruvian artist sheds light: on the rebellion of the working class from the global South (image 1); on the complicity of white feminism with the colonial order (image 2); on the legacy of global anti-colonial resistance, whose seeds take root and where spirits and plants plot revenge together (image 3); and finally, to conclude, makes a reverence to the role models and those who deserve respect: A bow to historical political organization like the Cromotex texile-union in Peru in the late 70s, and the demonstrators on the streets of Peru, today. (Image 4)  

As is often the case in Daniela Ortiz's work, it is precisely the recourse to "childlike media", that liberates: children's books, playgrounds, toys or even puppet theater make it possible for her to call out global conditions in all their harshness - without losing the humor, the poetry and the belief in social justice and that organizing resistance is not just an utopia but a reality that has been happening in many contexts of the global south. 
 
A puppet and mask play by the award-winning Peruvian artist with Melina Pyschny, Yan Balistoy and Challenge Gumbodete from the Neumarkt Ensemble - against the backdrop of the political situation in Peru with special actuality.


Language German/English with English and German subtitles
Duration 75 Mins