Donja Hota
When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams - this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness - and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"
- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Donja Hota departs from the theme of universal revolt in times of social conflict and reflects on the power of individuals to change society. It begins with a collectively created work in which the team of artists question their own biographical material. At the same time, they examine the life and work of celebrated and controversial feminist activist Nawal El Saadawi; and explore the classic 'first novel' of Western literature, Don Quixote. Donja Hota is created where reality and fiction intertwine, where the hero and anti-hero collide, and where the personal and the political become one. This is an invitation to look at the transformative and stubborn idealism through which these artists and their fictional creations changed their lives and the lives of others. The work is made in a horizontal, collaborative manner, with transparency built into form and content. A core goal is to develop a process that puts feminist principles into practice. Or, as Saadawi would encoura
For Donja Hota, Enkidu invites several artists: Betina Abi Habib, Leila Anderson, Ana Vilela Da Costa, Yasmine Deroui, Line Mertens, Arzu Saglam, Alma Saray and Nadia Lauro. They gather around the legacy of feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi and together adopt a collective identity, that of the figure Donja Hota.
As Donja Hota, they contemplate a dissident life: plunging into the possibility of stubborn idealism getting ready to fight for pleasure
The system of rootsstudy strengthen their surreal tools
Loosen strands of freedom from the archives of their bodies tear up fundamental social illusions and produce an unfolding terrain
Donja Hota's name mirrors that of Don Quixote. They are mistakenly seen as heroes and fools. But Donja Hota is not fighting windmills. She shares a life and ways in which it can be lived.
ge: to not only make connections by making art, but also to organise, rejoicing in the potential threat of collective action.
by & with
Enkidu Khaled, Line Mertens, Joachim Robbrecht, Arzu Saglam, Leila Anderson & Carolina Maçiel De Franca
