The annihilation of the body becomes the only way out in order to escape the pain and their lack of power. A final act of violence ends permanent violence.
The act of suicide is an action against powerlessness; it is the power of the estranged one over the body , which is acting violently.
The victim turns into the aggressor. Suicide removes the victim from the agressor. An aggressor without a victim loses his power. Suicide is a subversive act of the victim against the aggressor.
Wehrli installs her 11 shirt sculptures on rafts in the river. The shirts cover no bodies, they are pulled over steel frames like tents. The shirts have disproportionately long sleeves, one would have difficulties to write with such long sleeves. The empty shirts don’t simulate a body. They are open in the front and reveal a hollow inner space.
The variously large shirts have different texts by different women written on them. They stand spacially separated from each other in the river. The river becomes a stage and the shirts costumes in a theater.
Voices can be heard.
Wehrli doesn’t stay with the writing on the shirts, she doubles the texts.
On tape one hears 11 different voices. They are unsentimental like recorded protocols. The different texts can now be heard in their accustic difference: as they differ from one woman to another, but also in contrast to the shirt sculptures who live on the river like large frozen puppets.
Wehrli steps into the river. she lights her shirt sculptures: the installation turns into a performance. she sets the rafts in motion. Burial ritual and revival at the same time. The burning shirt bodies float down the river; they become performers themselves.
Beyond control. feuer fluss.
Wehrli gives a place to the women, not a stationary place with boundaries but one that is continously in motion. The speaking voices remain audible beyond the burning, as witnesses.