T‘ME‘A טמאה

Experiments with menstruation blood, floating stones, and red thread, research on diaspora, purity, holiness, and protected space.

In this performance, artist Adi Liraz is using and giving voice to items that carry long histories and traditions which were almost or fully erased by the colonial nation-state and patriarchy, in a ritual of protection and purification.

She is questioning the dichotomic separation between what is considered to be good and bad and presents that what is considered ‘dirty’ or ‘forbidden’ by the colonial and patriarchal gaze as purifying and healing, applying a feminine, decolonial perspective of intersectional justice, protest, and resilience.

‘Tame’ [Hebrew טמא], usually rendered ‘impure’ in English, comes from the Torah and stands for persons or objects in the state of ritual impurity. The opposite word to tame or tum’a טֻּמְאָה is tahor or tahara.

*T‘ME‘A is the feminine form of Tame.