female ritual dance

The phenomenon of gender-based violence is revealed through a series of femicides, which occur in Greece during 2021. In the first months of 2021 and under home restriction, the social response to the phenomenon was necessarily expressed online and recorded via the hashtag #γυναικοκτονία (#femicide.) This hashtag evolves into a phenomenon itself which is prolonged and escalated, accompanying the phenomenon of crimes.

The work concerns the numeric visualisation of the online posts that used #γυναικοκτονία, as the recording of a collective mourning. Having collected 18 different women’s forms from traditional fabrics, the figures are arranged in a row creating the traditional dance motif. The dance in the traditional fabrics is presented with a sequence of female and male figures in turn. On the contrary, this dance is formed only by women.

The embroidered figures correspond only to the first 100 posts that used #γυναικοκτονία (#femicide), while the rest are presented on the screen. The dance is presented in motion as the phenomenon is in progress.

The project discusses whether mourning can be displayed online and if a hashtag can replace a ritual gesture. Moreover it brings to surface the possibility of metadata classification externalising the collective expression.

photos Thanassis Gatos

• exhibition

  Lost & Shared: approaches to collective mourning towards transformative politics

• curator

  Eliana Otta

• venue

  Oneminute Space

• year

  2021