|
|
by Lena Simic |
|
 |
“What does
a post card want to say to you? On what conditions
is it possible? Its destination traverses you, you
no longer know who you are. At the very instant when
from its address it interpellates, you, uniquely you,
instead of reaching you it divides you or sets you
aside, occasionally overlooks you. And you love and
you do not love, it makes of you what you wish, it
takes you, it leaves you, it gives you.”
Jacques Derrida Post Card
|
 |
|
 |
|
I am from Liverpool. I am from
Dubrovnik.
My name is Magdalena, after my grandmother, and inspired
by my name, I assume Mary Magdalene’s Biblical
status as a penitent whore and stage encounters between
you and me.
Witness the process of my transformation into Mary Magdalene
in Dubrovnik and Liverpool, always my other home. I am
offering you an audio-visual individual encounter with
my ‘Other’ culture. I bring you a bit of ‘Other’.
I possess perfumed ointment contained in an alabaster
jar. I smell divine. I have marked my space with cloth
and odour. I anoint your feet. Experience the contemplative
and tangible space of a Biblical ritual. Beware, this
is a contemporary experiential enactment.
I have constructed myself as an object of desire. I invite
your gaze upon me. I touch…
I am foreign and sensual. I am making myself up for you.
Pay me a visit… |
|
 |
 |
This Post card is
from me to you (back to me):
Write over me as I have written over Mary Magdalene while
archetypes claim to be inscribed over us…
Palimpsest – n. a manuscript written
over a partly erased older manuscript in such a way that
the old
words can be read beneath the new
|
The tracking of 30 post cards sent from Dubrovnik to Liverpool:
I came back to Liverpool on 18/09 and:
Only 2 postcards were waiting for me, one void and one from Mirjana. The rest never reached its destination – I never made it home. I suspect that the neighbours mistook them for flyers and threw them away. I am sad, and yet I am happy about it. I myself sent eight and only one arrived. Gary’s never came… I will never know what was destined for me.
October:
More postcards arrived…
8 void (I sent these, they are 8 unused meetings with me)
1 from Mirjana: “Dobro ti stoji ta perika”
1 from mama: “M. Magdalene zivotni put duhovno pocinje brisanjem nogu Isusa i bio je to put PREOBRAZENJA. Slijedi je!”
1 from Zvoncica:…”Vidjet cemo se opet. I ja kao i ti uvijek dolazim i odlazim…”
1 from Gary: “Here I am outside Kamenica thinking about how you wrote over what had been written…”
12 postcards out of 30. Postcards take ages to arrive, but I doubt any more will be coming…
And one from Mario dated 02/11: “…dojmljivo sudjelovati u performanceu.” |
|
“To post is to send by ‘counting’ with a halt, a relay, or a suspensive delay, the place of a mailman, the possibility of going astray and of forgetting (not of repression, which is a moment of keeping, but of forgetting).
Jacques Derrida Post Card |
|
|
|
 |
extracts from email correspondence
with Sonja, graphic and web designer
“Da li bi isli s tiskom s druge
strane, onim crtama sto sve kartoline imaju za adresu?
Onda bi mogli o tom trosku otisnuti u blijedoj boji
i cijeli scenarij
predstave. To bi bilo jacine taman toliko da se moze
procitati, a opet bi se moglo po tome pisati i posluzilo
bi kao prava kartolina. Poslali
bi je iz Li u Du i obratno...” – Sonja,
dated 18/07/2004
“…zanimljivo je da
mi stvaramo razglednicu koja je iz dva grada... sto
je paradoks jer nikad ne mozes biti na dva mjesta
u isto vrijeme, jedino u mislima...
…
super super super ideja da na pozadini razglednice
napisem blijedom bojom scenarij predstave - info o
predstavi - i onda mi je palo na pamet da bi mi publika
kojoj pomazem noge mogla poslati razglednicu o tome
kako im je bilo na liv. adresu - sto znaci da bi svatko
tko je bio 'u marije magdalene' dobio razglednicu sa
mojom liverpoolskom adresom i s markicom i ako zeli
poslao mi je 'doma' u liverpool.” – my
email to Sonja dated 21/07/2004
|
|
|
|
|
|
