(DURATION 6 HOURS) ENSCHEDE 2004
‘The performance Er-tragen dramatizes the notion of space as enacted, de-essentialized from pre-existing identities and highlights its performative character. While any space supports and prioritizes certain practices over other, it only becomes a place once these practices are enacted. The space is indeed treated as a stage for the bodies’ endurance within the six- hour performance. Martin uses spatial elements as props and the architecture of the space becomes her medium. Martin treats the space not as a static container for the performance but as part of the performative assemblage, another body that guides and undoes the movements of the two performers.’
MA Lila Athanasiadou
Lecturer Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam / Curator team MAMA Rotterdam
‘Katharina D. Martin’s works are touching in their loneliness. Separation seems to be the main theme there – a lonely female figure, abstracted from wider context, although always closely connected to the architectural space, both enclosed and defining it. Even when her performances involve two people, there is hardly contact between them. It is the loneliness that outlines the vulnerability of the artist in her performance more than nakedness or self-violence, often used by women performance artists.’
Dr. Marta Zarzycka
Ph.D. Utrecht University