Heart Brake
Giulia Damiani

Heartbrokenness is more than an affective state and is said to be ‘at the heart of all revolutionary consciousness’. As two figures labour on stage using rocks, drums and the voice, they evoke the legendary folk saint Wilgefortis, protector of heartbroken people, via an interpretive concert and prayer. Also known as Sint Ontkommer, Wilgefortis is an ancient bearded-woman whose gruesome story and gender-transgressive identity offered protection and inspiration to people breaking from violent conventions. The two figures explore vocal registers beyond gender binaries while embodying the sounding and imagery of manual rock-splitting. Who’s allowed to give the blow and who’s forced to receive it in today’s society? Once struck, the space will vibrate. The choreographic score emerges in the movement between breath, voice and song; signalling the subversive irony that is experienced in the path to setting oneself, and each other, free. The performance includes a tribute to Ulrike Ottinger’s 1981 iconic film Freak Orlando through a punk opera concert.

Giulia Damiani is an artist based in Amsterdam who works with text and performance. Her practice creates provocative performative situations, often starting from a sound investigation, posing urgent questions about violence, language, and a mythical and ecological territory. Her latest production, Heart Brake (2024), was created at Centrale Fies and presented internationally with the support of the Mondriaan Fonds, AFK, and Voordekunst. It will be staged again in December 2025 in Frascati, Amsterdam. In 2022, she completed her PhD based on her performance practice, entitled Porous Places: Eruptive Bodies, at the Department of Art at Goldsmiths College (London), writing extensively about the feminist group Le Nemesiache in Naples and reactivating their work. She edited the book Ritual and Display, published by If I Can’t Dance in 2022. She teaches at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. 
www.giuliadamiani.eu 

Credits *Heart Brake*:
Concept, director and writer: Giulia Damiani
Performed and developed by: Giulia Damiani in collaboration with Luísa Saraiva
Production and artistic advice: Isobel Dryburgh 
Sound design: Leroy Chaar
Costume and scene design: Publik Universal Frxnd 
Stage manager: Fivos Petropoulos 
Rock-splitting training: Alberto Damiani
With the support of: Amsterdams Fonds Voor den Kust 23-24, Centrale Fies, Mondriaan Fonds 24, Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose is a rose, Voordekunst
Residency support: Dance Space Destiny (Amsterdam), If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution (Amsterdam), CRL (Porto), Centrale Fies (Dro), De Sloot (Amsterdam)
Special acknowledgements for the support: Sara Giannini, Jodi Gilbert, Fariborz Karimi, Mark Redele, Barnaby Savage, Merel Severs, Angeliki Tzortzakaki and Dan Walwin