Anger Is a Liquid

Anger Is a Liquid
Foto: Lilian Robl

Artist & project director:

Lilian Robl

Voice-over:

Carly Danielson

With fragments of Soraya Chemal, Hélène Cixous, Lilly Dancyger, Orazgozel Esenova, Erin Khar, Lilian Robl and Arundhati Roy.

Video installation:

Lilian Robl

This project is part of the exhibition “Back to Normality”

Vernissage & Festival-Opening: 10. 9. 18.00 – 22.00 Uhr 
Exhibition: 11. 9.–18. 9. 14.00 – 20.00 Uhr 
Closing & Finissage: 19. 9. 14.00 – 22.00 Uhr 

SOHO STUDIOS, Liebknechtgasse 32, 1160 Wien

The video installation Anger is a liquid deals with the connection between gender and emotion. In three chapters, the suppression of and one's own handling of anger in female socialized bodies is discussed and examined from historical, sociological and psychological perspectives: In Medusa's monologue, the mythical figure of Medusa recounts her true fate in a monologue addressed to her rage, acting as a matriarchal tutelary goddess who continually adds fuel to the fire and thus maintains women's* rage as a genuinely "feminine virtue." In Vectors, two young women* perform an exercise adopted from the anti-aggression training that is meant to make the physical affects of rage tangible. The Medusa head is now merely a simulacrum on their fake brand clothing. The final chapter – Anger is like liquid – is a reflection on linguistic metaphors of anger and culminates in a thesis on angry speech. Anger, as a liquid, passes through different stations and takes on different manifestations, ignites fires, overflows: Female anger – insofar as it is justified – can be a powerful tool for not remaining in a passive victim role, but for taking responsibility and experiencing self- efficacy, especially when women* join forces. For even if history books like to keep quiet about it, the driving force behind revolutions were often angry women*.