Medea/Mothers’ Clothes was developed in 2004 as a response to social and cultural constrictions that I felt were placed onto me as a mother and a ‘Foreigner’ (Croatian, resident in Britain). It is through this particular piece that I found expression through a new aesthetic form of live art, which felt suitable for accommodating my early experiences of motherhood, my life with two young children and a sense of displacement I felt as a foreigner in the UK.
The live art event, which lasts 30 minutes, includes a slide show, audio-visual footage and live action. Medea/Mothers’ Clothes was first performed at the Bluecoat in Liverpool in 2004 and has since toured around the UK, Croatia and Cuba. Its last performance took place in 2007 in Winchester (when I was pregnant with my third child, Sid).
As a part of my research project into ‘performance and the maternal’ I revived the performance for Bratislava audiences at Studio 12 in February 2016. Link to Studio 12 video documentation of performance Medea/Mothers’ Clothes (followed by 6 Notebooks for 6 Women for 6 Years in Bratislava and post-show discussion).
See Autobiographical Solo Performances section Medea/Mothers’ Clothes for more information about 2004 research process and outcome. Video documentation of Studio 12 performance of Medea/Mothers’ Clothes (followed by 6 Notebooks for 6 Women for 6 Years in Bratislava and post-show discussion).
Medea/Mothers’ Clothes was also performed at Arts Centre at Edge Hill university as a part of Festival of Ideas, Identity in June 2017.
Lena Simic 