For the exhibition Blut ohne Gewalt (Blood Without Violence), Allegra Piergallini developed the performance NATURgewalt (Natural Violence/Force of Nature).
The work explores emotions surrounding menstruation – both on a personal level and in a societal context. For a long time, menstrual blood was banished from public display. Instead, advertising campaigns for period products replaced it with blue liquid. Even today, when menstruation is discussed more openly, it is often through an aestheticized depiction that ignores the associated suffering and complexity of female experiences.
This suffering includes not only physical pain and psychological distress but also refers to the diverse forms of discrimination, shame, and oppression that women experience due to their physicality and womanhood. For centuries, women have been condemned for what was considered their "nature," as well as for any form of self-determined expression. The title NATURgewalt arises from this tension.
At the center of the performance is an angry woman. Just as patriarchal narratives locate the origin of female guilt in the myth of Eve – the woman who dared to eat from the forbidden apple – the same structures also generate female anger. In this work, this anger finds expression through the visualization of menstruation itself: something deeply natural and at the same time a central symbol of feminist self-determination.
The performance is carried out in lingerie – an exaggerated staging of female aesthetics that is deliberately broken by the presence of blood. In addition to red paint, blue paint is also used, referring to the historical invisibility of female physicality and menstruation. Both colors spread in changing movements across a white canvas. Again and again, the performer reaches between her legs to place menstrual blood at the center of the visual action.
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