From Cutting Fingers To Cutting Onions, 2023
My master thesis tells the story of my artistic research journey in two parts. The first book explores how it all began, focusing on methods that trigger intimate tension. The second book delves into how my research evolved, specifically, the exploration of safe spaces after leaving my own. This part is about dismantling these safe spaces using scenographic and dramaturgical tools, and utilizing contrasts as an artistic method to disrupt preconceived notions of safety. The visual appearance and the style of writing reflect the journey of my research. It transitions from a covered book that wants to hide and addresses the reader as a stranger to a naked book with an open spine in which the reader is now referred to as an compliance.
‘From Cutting Fingers To Cutting Onions’ has won ‘De Pluijm Award 2023’ for the best artistic research in the field of Theatre and will be published soon.
“Verena wrote 'From Cutting Fingers To Cutting Onions' in two books. Working with the central metaphor of ambivalent emotions and contrasting pairs of human feelings and artistic strategies, it makes perfect sense that her Final Research Document consists of two books, one addressing the reader as a stranger, the other as a compliance. The first book circles in a personal and scenographic way around the topic of intimate tension. The writing style in this book is light and precise, creating intimacy with the reader through a combination of personal anecdotes, scenographic experiments, and professional reflections. In the second book, she convincingly demonstrates how seemingly opposing forces, contrasting concepts, and ambivalent emotions can sharpen artistic and scenographic methods. In this way, the safe space you desperately long for can only be realized by tearing it down.”
– Nirav Christophe, Jury of ‘De Pluijm Award’