Articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.
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A hundred years ago, Paul Hindemith composed this opera Saint Susannafrom the libretto by August Witting. The nearly 25-minute play scandalized society by depicting sexual desire in conflict with spiritual piety in a monastic context. The nun's submission to pleasures, starting from the meeting of her body with the image of Christ on the altar, was associated with strong criticism of religious institutions, fanaticism and physical punishment for moral deviations, as well as an attempt to materialize in the body the ecstasy of spiritual submission. The musical structure was composed in accordance with the dissonant language of the time, the juxtapositions of which mainly evoke a feeling of discomfort and tension.
Recently, the opera was re-staged by Florentina Holzinger under a shortened name Holy. His performances, as always, have a radically original format and last almost three hours, with scenes full of violence, exaggeration, provocative and disturbing. The Austrian choreographer and performer, a graduate of applied arts at the University of Music and Performing Arts, explores the body, especially her own, as a way of acting and manifesting forms of social, religious and gender-based violence, with a strong sexual presence. And a lot of provocation and irony. Both to social structures and to the limits of art. It was therefore predictable that Holzinger would come across Hildemith's work at some point.
After several presentations, always with local reactions from conservatives and religious people, something else happened. At the Staatsoper Stuttgart, one of the most famous European theaters associated with experimentalism, 18 people reported poorly. As far as we know, few needed the presence of doctors. While the international press rushed to justify the violence in the show's scenes as real sex, blood and more.
You don't have to see the work, just watch some of the fragments made available for distribution by concert halls and festivals to immediately find other possible arguments, namely loud music, strobe lighting, chaotic context. As in any amusement park, art gallery or cinema, these are elements that can make you feel nauseous, dizzy, or even cause panic, which is why we receive warnings at the entrance. It would be no different in the theater.
With such exposure of violence on the numerous screens that accompany us every day, with shows of bodies, war contexts, various forms of violence and brutality, these would not be just scenes, because a viewer interested in Holzinger knows exactly what you can find. And, if not exactly, expect nothing less than to be surprised by the radicalness of his language.
The same thing happens with other artists, such as director, playwright and performer Angélica Liddell, from whom we know we will always receive challenging and disturbing speeches and scenes. Listing artists who confront religiosity and religions would make this text almost endless, as has always been the case, in each era with the features they have access to.
Recently, 11-bit studios released the game on several platforms Indicate. The action takes place in 19th century Russia, but has medieval features. The main character, the nun Indika, is confronted by the others when they realize that she is hearing voices, perhaps coming from the devil himself. The game is deeply melancholic and, unlike what you might expect from an action game, is characterized by a slow pace and trivial actions that require the player to dive deeper, be less playful and more reflective.
Also in Indicatesexuality is on the stage, and the heroine herself is at one point forced to serve others to achieve her destiny, in a state of deep humiliation and opposition to her beliefs. The game had to be completed in Kazakhstan because the developers' stay in Russia became dangerous and impossible, says Dmitry Svetlov.
Some may wonder why artists are so fascinated by confrontations with religious institutions. What if we do the opposite exercise? Intellectuals from opposing trends and different disciplines write about the presence of faith and religiosity as a dogma that should be questioned, showing the possibility of understanding religion in other ways. The most common and historically unchallenged criticism is that religions, especially monotheistic ones, promote various forms of violence, holy wars, colonization, and forms of domination and submission.
There are those who invite people into “atheology”, as opposed to theology, through which the deconstruction of the foundations of religious thought can be complicated and questioned, in order to deconstruct the mental bonds that sustain religion in society.
Michael Onfray explains how religions, based on fairy tales, have contributed to the development of a certain irrationality, because limiting ourselves to dogma would be tantamount to renouncing reason, without which we become mental slaves unable to establish another ethical perspective. Other reflections emerged from such reflections: in the face of the impossibility of scientifically confirming God, in the absence of empirical evidence, faith is a delusional state.
The argument is that many aspects considered divine by religion can be explained in terms of natural processes; as well as morality itself, which rationality can pursue without the presence of an external force or institution.
Biology, culture and psychology are able to replace many of the rules set by religious beliefs. Which ultimately makes the study of religion comparable to other cases such as behavior and language. Less radically, scholars suggest the development of beliefs as an evolutionary necessity for achieving social cohesion, providing psychological comfort, etc. These would still be important benefits that religious institutions exploited and exploited in positive and negative ways.
It is therefore necessary to consider how religious institutions, by accepting faith as a fairy tale necessary for evolutionary development, have made faith, faith and spirituality objects of mischaracterization and distortion of rational morality and the ethics of bodies, identities and desires.
It is therefore not surprising that artists continue to brutally confront religious institutions and, consequently, their dogmas and beliefs. However, it is worth noting how much religion continues to be a basis for discussion and deconstruction for them, that is, it is present and determining in their own disruptions.
After all, you only fight what you bring to life within you. And denying and reacting is the first gesture of art. Even if it's against who you are, against who you don't want to be, against what's bothering you. Sharing the ordeal with the viewer, captured by the image of a crucified body in the dining room watching you. There is nothing more religious than this.
Suggested reading:
Florentina Holzinger: Work in progress. Editora Dance in August 2019
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenonby Daniel Dennett. Editora Objetiva, 2010.
Treatise on Atheology: The Religion of Reasonby Michael Onfray. Authentic Publisher, 2007.
God's disappointmentby Richard Dawkins. Letras House, 2007.
