Blood Drops Red Words: Considering VestAndPage’s blood writing in performance

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5965/1414573102552025e0203In

Keywords:

performance art, blood, intimacy, momentary poetry

Abstract

This self-reflective article addresses how VestAndPage (Verena Stenke & Andrea Pagnes) have been exploring blood in a bifold symbolic value as a performative tool since 2006: connection–separation, immutability–violation, abjection–access. After medical complications and becoming blood donors, the artist duo has started deploying surgical instruments in their performances to engrave Pagnes’s skin, extract his blood, and ritualise this process into stream-of-consciousness writing. Thus, blood becomes a device of intimacy that allows them to transcend the representation of concepts and explore the human condition’s transitory presence and fragile nature.

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Author Biography

Andrea Pagnes, Universidad de las Artes ArtEZ

El artista y escritor italiano Andrea Pagnes y la artista alemana Verena Stenke trabajan juntos como VestAndPage desde 2006. Exploran el arte de la performance y el cine basado en la performance como fenómenos de ‘lugares sutiles’ a través de su práctica creativa colaborativa, investigación teórica y artística, y proyectos comunitarios artísticos temporales y curatoriales, como la Semana Internacional de Arte de Performance de Venecia. Sus obras se han presentado a nivel internacional. Son profesores en la Universidad de las Artes ArtEZ (Países Bajos) y en la Academia UNIDEE (Italia), y recibieron el premio a la mejor película en el Festival de Cine Independiente de Berlín (2018).

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Published

2025-08-31

How to Cite

PAGNES, Andrea. Blood Drops Red Words: Considering VestAndPage’s blood writing in performance. Urdimento: Revista de Estudos em Artes Cênicas, Florianópolis, v. 2, n. 55, p. 1–22, 2025. DOI: 10.5965/1414573102552025e0203In. Disponível em: https://revistas.udesc.br/index.php/urdimento/article/view/27742. Acesso em: 1 sep. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 55 (2025): Drama: 30 anos da abordagem no Brasil | Acervos Ex-cêntricos: as materialidades diversas da documentação nas Artes Cênicas

Section

Continuous flow

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