Selin Davasse, “The Seraph and The Oracle”, 19–20 March 2022, 7:30 PM
“The Seraph and The Oracle” is an intimate performance evoking a moist dreamscape of Istanbul’s herstorical peninsula from inside a soft, voluptuous, feminine body.
In 324, when Constantine I chose a perky Bosphorus town to be his namesake imperial capital—thus establishing a precedent of narcissistic male hegemony which would continue to place the city in pickle after pickle—he brought with him the Oracle of Delphi’s Serpent Column as an architectural crown jewel. As various empires swelled and deflated, the migrant Serpent Column and the coveted Hagia Sophia eyeballing each other, got their feet kissed by each new conquerer—until suddenly the column disappeared in the 18th century, under circumstances bulging with mystery.
The performance reimagines the Seraph of Hagia Sophia and the Oracle of Delphi as lustful brunettes from the city with ever so many deadnames; who narrate in verse, song, and rap, a sibylline assortment of past and future affairs that come to a leg-shaking climax with the fall of the patriarchy.
Selin Davasse lives and works in Berlin. Her research-based performance practice repurposes disparate literary and performative techniques to engage with ethics and politics from alternative presents and speculative futures.
This project is supported by GLASSHOUSE.
Cakes: Lila Steinkampf
Sound composition: Lugh O’Neill, Mads Kristian Frøslev
Garments: Maldoror and Olivia Ballard
Story writing: Selin Davasse and Zoë Claire Miller