LACERATE

Video 3.2K, 16’ 20’’

Courtesy the artist and Fondazione In Between Art Film

Commissioned and produced by In Between Art Film for the project Mascarilla 19 – Codes of Domestic Violence

JANIS RAFA

Janis Rafa (b. 1984 in Athens) primarily employs the language of cinema, in feature films, video essays, and video installations. Her works, which are often permeated by elements of magical realism, explore the symbolic potential of the relations between humans and other species, touching on universal themes such as mortality, coexistence, and environmental awareness.

Lacerate blends elements of realism with a dreamlike, symbolic dimension, portraying the extreme decision of a woman who turns from victim into executioner. Inspired by the iconography of mythological and biblical paintings such as Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes, Rafa nonetheless chooses to show the moment after the act of revenge—or self-defense—when the dramatic climax is already over.

In a series of mises-en-scène shot only in natural light, we see a domestic setting overrun by a pack of dogs that roam around restlessly, attacking objects and furniture. The interior of this home is a mental space, violated and lacerated like a body that has undergone violence. Fruit, game, and remnants of food are arranged like still lifes, with allegorical elements evoking the precariousness of life and the loss of innocence. It is a suspended, hostile ecosystem, where the brutality suffered by other species is transferred by osmosis to human beings.

In the vision imagined by the artist, the hunting hounds and other dogs—which were perhaps owned by the couple and witnessed the abusive relationship over the years—have come back like ghosts from the past. Historically symbols of loyalty to their master, the dogs here rebel and become the woman’s guardians, supporting and protecting her in the process of liberation from her persecutor. It is thus the irrational, animalistic part of the unconscious that has been unleashed, allowing the woman to regain control over her life and save herself.