2021

Hahnentor, Rudolfplatz, Cologne, Germany

Guerrilla performance, in collaboration with Maksim Hartwig

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The Hahnentor welcomed kings travelling from their coronation in Aachen to Cologne Cathedral. It is also remembered as part of the route taken by women condemned for witchcraft to the execution site at Melaten. This performance brought royal ceremony and the persecution of women, two expressions of patriarchal power, into uneasy proximity at the same threshold.
We staged an unannounced ritual within a brief window to act. I became the figure of the witch and called out to those condemned in the European witch trials. German artist Maksim Hartwig, whose practice engages with the exploitation of women’s spiritual power, made a spontaneous action painting. His participation made the collaboration an act of remembrance and an attempt at repair. Together we turned the gate into a space of remembrance and a gesture toward redemption.
It was a guerrilla ritual: raw, fast and unsanctioned. Photographs and words later carried it across social media, extending the act of remembrance and release.