LAURA_ AkiÓ-> PaarungsRitual
Between 23 days, Laura Carvalho was in residency in Germany Tübingen, to produce her project LAURA _ AkiÓ-> PaarungsRitual (paarungsritual, is a german word that translated to english means- mating ritual). This project was presented in the last day of the third edition of the Generate Festival, a festival focused in digital performance.
LAURA _ AkiÓ->PaarungsRitual, is a digital performance that reflects a work in progress, that started in São Paulo, Brazil in August 2016, when Laura Carvalho opened a Tinder and an Ok cupid account (dating apps).
The concept of this dating apps basically consist in offering the possibility of a “blind date” by a interface that can be understood as a platform of self-merchandising. Taking advance of the tools offered by this kind of Apps , Carvalho decided not only to publish in her Tinder profile her website, but as well to appear as her figure, LAURA _ AkiÓ->, characterized by the use of her unique hat.
Carvalho´s profile in this dating Apps can be seen as a digital performance by itself. But it was in Tübingen, Germany that the project went further. Now the date itself has become a live performance.
Understanding a blind date as being a performative scenario by it self , Carvalhos explores this pontentia, presenting herself as LAURA _ AkiÓ->, making out from her own dates her performative work.
During 6 days, LAURA _ AkiÓ-> had recorded her 6 Tinder dates, in the city. The waiting of LAURA _ AkiÓ->, to her Tinder date and the date itself, was filmed by the artist, by a filming system attached in her hat, that resembles the records obtained by a Gopro camera.
Thanks to this system was possible, not only, to record the “Tinder date”, but the reaction and the relation of the people that were in the place where the date happened.
The apresentation of LAURA _ AkiÓ-> PaarungsRitual, in the Generate Festival on the 11 of november of 2017, tried to create a reference of what was her “tinder dates” in Tubingen. A projector behind the table where LAURA _ AkiÓ-> was sitted, projected the messages received by her in her account in Tinder and Ok cupid.
In the end of night, the artist presented the audio-visual record of her performance.(Watch the video). The sound track is made from the remix of four songs, related with love and loneliness (“Doi, doi, doi”- Ponto de Pomba Gira, brazilian folk song from Umbanda religion, “Dance me until the end of love”-Leonard Cohen, american song from the eighties, “Griechischer Wein” – Udo Jürgens, classical german song from the seventhies)
Subverting the use of these dating apps, the artist points out how this digital tool already changed our relationships. Questioning the boundaries between art and life, private life and public life, LAURA _ AkiÓ-> PaarungsRitual, open to a discussion regarding image rights, privacy and contemporary relationships.
