You probably are familiar with the word violence. It is a negative word, often associated with bloodshed and pain. What is violence? Have you ever experienced violence without knowing it? It appears in many ways, in different forms. Are you aware of this?

Three years ago in Xuzhou, China, there was a terrible incident when a woman was found chained and disoriented. The investigation revealed that the woman had been trafficked for many years and had given birth to eight children over a period of more than a decade while living with her supposed husband. Trafficking and imprisonment of women is not uncommon in the world, but it is thought-provoking that the local government has repeatedly made false announcements in an attempt to hide the true intentions from the public.

This makes me very concerned about the situation of women in today’s society. Just when I thought that times had changed and that women were in control of their own bodies, the situation remains the same. Chained women are an extreme case, of course, but discrimination and violence against women is still everywhere, seemingly changing on the surface, but only in a more subtle way. This means that basically every woman encounters it and experiences it from birth. It permeates all our pores.

In my project I explore the violence against women that is structural, universal and hidden in everyday life in a performative practice.