Who is afraid of Witches?

The audio-visual installation Who
is afraid of witches? subtitled 2000 years of sacrifice in the name of the
state, devil and God symbolises a link with the persecuted women. It is a historical
memory of those who did not survive, it is an ode to all those innocent found
guilty and burnt at stake as witches.
The theorists of witch trials,
hysteria and persecutions of witches claim that the memory of these events persists in us as
a wound in our collective consciousness. That is why the trauma of women found
guilty of witchcraft, burnt at stake, publicly ridiculed, threatened and
dishonoured will not be forgotten until it has been named, confessed a thousand
times and spoken of for each individual memory.
The interactive audio-visual
project is based on a direct confrontation with the fact that the status of
women in Western cultures, based on the Christian belief of the original sin,
is fundamentally linked to the topic of witches and sacrifice in general. The
fact that women were publicly tortured and burnt has left deep wounds of fear
in our culture and at the same time the roots of feminine connection with
magical herbal powers and knowledge of medicine were lost. With witches the
process of sacrifice reached its peak, through it we can deconstruct church and
civil authorities’ fears of strong, creative and free women. The creative act
at the Ljubljana Castle was designed as a deconstruction of the image of
sacrifice by the group of authors, so that everyone, and especially women who
have lived and still live with sacrifice and oppression, could become aware of
their deep independent power.
Nada Kirn Špolar

On 18 October 1425 Veronika of
Desenice was drowned.

Authors: Marjetka
Godler (artistic director), Nada Kirn Špolar; sound effects:
Tomaž Grom; authors of the installation: Zlatka Knapič, Majda Golob,
Katjuša Tavčar, Tjaša Bavcon, Boštjan Mljač, Sonja Toplak, Helena Škrbec, Vesna Mirtelj,
Nataša Gala, Urban Novak, Meta Gunde, Barbara Černe, Maja Ferme, Mateja Jager, Mateja
Kumar, Nadja Lapajne, Ksenja Berkopec, Mojca Janželj, Janja Jadranka Marot, Nataša Kovač;technical director: Tomaž Štrucl; light design: Slavica Radović;

With the support of:
Kabinet županje Mesta Ljubljane, MOL Oddelek za kulturo,
Zavod za odprto družbo Slovenija,
KulturKontakt Austria.