Hulahula
(2006)

Text by Isabel Rohner for the performance hulahula by Irene Maag: Christmas ritual In the first part, Irene Maag sits among the audience at the table and unwraps cervelats from a plastic bag. Using a knife and toothpicks, she begins to carve nativity figures out of the cervelats. Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus in the manger and two animals. She places the figures in a familiar position on a wooden board. In a second part, we leave the studio and make our way in a kind of procession to the fallow land behind the wagon master. A Christmas tree stands on the site. Irene Maag places the crib under the tree and unwraps another cervelat, cuts it on one side and pulls a string through the sausage. Now she takes off her trousers and stands with bare legs and skin-colored underpants next to the Christmas tree with the nativity scene. She ties the cervelat with the sausage around her hips and now has a penis-like bell hanging in front of her pubic area. She removes a bottle of spray from the plastic bag and sprays the Christmas tree with it. The image of a pissing man appears. After initial difficulties setting the tree alight, it suddenly catches fire. Irene Maag begins a happy dance around the burning tree, singing like an Indian in a bad Indian movie and throwing her hands up to the sky. The sausage between her legs dangles and dances along. You can feel the heat of the fire and the strong smell of burning pine rice. When the tree remains as a black, smoking misery, the dance is also over. Irene Maag tucks the cervelat into her underpants, puts her clothes back on and walks away. Text by Barbara Neidhart for the performance hulahula by Irene Maag: Rituals It was Christmas recently. At a time when the ritual of Christmas is being driven to the point of perversion, I want to expose it with my performance, put it up for discussion and, last but not least, create new rituals," says Irene Maag after her carnal, pleasurable, profound and stirring performance. In doing so, she unabashedly dares to tackle one of the rituals that define Western culture. The crib as the epitome of the birth of Christ and thus the appearance of God on earth in a body of flesh and blood is carved out of flesh and staged. The performer can count on the recognition value of her action by the audience, because the holy family in the stable - man, woman, child in the manger, donkey and ox - is an integral part of the Christmas ritual and is always recognized by individuals participating in Western culture. Recognition is one of the central features of the ritual, which functions as a repetition of a scenic arrangement. It creates familiarity with an action and thus community with the participants in the action. Rituals and ritualizations therefore enable social interaction and are central to the creation, maintenance and change of societies. They are not to be understood as stereotypical, inauthentic actions that reduce the autonomy of the individual, but as a structure of meaning within which every scenic element, every symbol, every gesture can only be adequately understood from the overall context.This superficial sketch of ritual and ritualization reveals points of contact with performance art. And it is reasonable to assume that this is precisely why performance art is ideally suited to dealing with rituals. What is remarkable about Maag's performance is the fact that she exposes the Christmas symbol of pagan origin - the tree - to the destructive fire, while the Christmas symbol of purely Christian origin - the nativity scene - remains intact. (And perhaps a question mark could even be placed behind this?) The strong images of the cervelat crib and the burning fir tree are accompanied by the tree dancing around in a humorous gender costume in a lusty, bacchanalian manner, and their depth and relevance are heightened by this contrast. They provide food for thought and would be worthy of further discussion in subsequent performances.