DENTATA PEARLS is a video work that emerged during the time of isolation, out of a desire for intimacy and a need for escape. It is a sci-fi, queer feminist, universally accessible fairytale that envisions a non-heteropatriarchal world of self-determination, emancipation, and mutual care. Dentata’s are friends, lovers, and intergalactic fighters on the attack against human history for excluding them, revealing their DIY survival mechanisms in the process. Dentata is their very own supernatural world – a collective source of energy traveling through space-time in order to heal their wounds, setting them free from whatever oppresses them, and connecting them to their deepest desires. DENTATA PEARLS is a macrocosmic protective shell of resistance, a friendship manifesto and love confessional. Narration and performance, sculptural costumes and VFX together concoct a hybrid work filled with tenderness and spikiness, sensuality, hotness and magic. When an unwanted organism invades a shellfish, the oyster feels disturbed and tries to expel it. To defend itself, the oyster produces a crystalline substance that coats the intruder with multiple layers, trapping it inside and transforming it into a shiny pearl over the years. The speculation that the formation of the pearl is a process of self-protection and healing led to the creation of Dentata. In Dentata, pearls are created within the body as a result of individual and collective care. Released from within, they travel through space-time until the Dentata’s discover them and bring them into their world. These shining orbs carry the condensed power of their ancestors’ emotions. The creatures in Dentata use this power to refashion themselves on their own terms, forming a soft yet sharp alliance of self and collective-determination.
DENTATA PEARLS was commissioned and produced by the Onassis – Stegi Foundation for the 10th Borderline Festival in 2021.
