* HIT ME IF I'M PRETTY * or The Modern Princess is a feminist gathering that follows #JUANA DOLORES # * too much diva for an assembly movement * (2020), forming the second part of the NEW CONSTITUTION – hypotheses and images in the feminine trilogy (2020-). Drawing from Machiavelli's The Prince, one of the earliest works of modern political philosophy dating back to the 16th century, and Gramsci's The Modern Prince, I transform the prince into a national and popular princess, both loved and feared. After being humiliated and betrayed, she returns to her castle and proclaims and defends the sovereignty of the desired object from a feminist standpoint of offense.
* HIT ME IF I'M PRETTY * or The Modern Princess is a provocation challenging the Other to recognise me as an object of desire: hit me, hit me if I’m pretty; but you won’t be able to do this without immediately recognising my capacity to arouse desire – whether willingly or unconsciously – and, therefore, recognising my power. * HIT ME– contains the violence of patriarchal masculinity on a scale that runs from the violent to the ridiculous: –IF I'M PRETTY *, on the other hand, contains independent and self-sufficient femininity in its mythical, almost magical dimension, on a scale that runs from the beautiful to the violent. I state the imperative that issues a threat against myself (hit me) as an order – or desire – only if I’m worthy of being recognised (if I’m pretty). Only in this way can the Other confess that their violence (also) desires me. And therein lies my power; and if I have power, however inoffensive or insignificant it may appear, because of its femininity, to the eyes of the structural misogyny, I am powerful, and sovereign, if I know it. And, as such, I demand to be recognised: I am ready to sacrifice myself in order to betray the desire that the Other feels for me, despite its violence. The sovereignty of the object of desire is frequently ignored or forgotten, but it is only when the object is infantilised that it is assaulted, not recognised. There is, therefore, resistance to the recognition of the object’s power of desire. And that’s why it’s seen as a provocation. But any provocation, if it is such, is a challenge. And to challenge contains the position of a duel between equals: from the violent to the violent.
* HIT ME IF I'M PRETTY * or The Modern Princess is a performative feminist essay on the sovereignty of the object of desire in an emotional, erotic, sexual or commercial context: often, always, violent or made violent. Infantilising or disdaining the feminine imaginary nullifies its artistic, philosophical, political, autonomous and legitimate, universal dimension, not aimed at deconstruction but at conservation and modernisation, at the same time a natural consequence of the course of History of Art and life. Femininity is just another domain in our history and our popular culture, which includes the contradictions of the object of desire as a (feminist) subject that is sexualised, eroticised, sentimentalised by an Other or by a Structure and which, when it rebels, can either demand to stop being an object without achieving this or, conversely, defend its position as object and turn the Other into an equal. Renouncing femininity and its intellectual and sensual complexity, contradictory as all feelings are, is to gift patriarchal neoliberalism with the tradition of our own image, the tradition of our own ideals, the possibility of creating critical thought around our feminine legacy from a sovereignly feminist perspective.
* HIT ME IF I'M PRETTY * or The Modern Princess is a performative solo that using the figure of the ‘toy’ in general and the ‘doll’ in particular as the main exponent of the object of desire, I declare myself sovereign, with sword and shield, riding on a unicorn, through the gardens of a fantastical castle. Why sovereignty? What for, sovereignty Against what, sovereignty? Sovereignty is usually demanded, claimed; in the best of cases, it is required by most contemporary, feminist discourse or positioning. But what if it’s performed? What if it is? Sovereignty is never absolute, it cohabits with its own characteristics, in this case, the object of desire: feminine, a toy, a doll, an actress. Thus I unfold my own terminology and military sensibility, discursive and performative, hypothetical and imagined, in the form of a feminist triptych that recognizes and assumes violence and beauty its first conquests of Feminism.
Produced by CASTILLO DE DIAMANTE and Antic Teatre.
Co-produced by Grec 2023 Festival de Barcelona and Festival Temporada Alta (2022).
Supported by: Beca Crea 2021 de ICUB (Institut de Cultura de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona) and ICEC (Institut Catala de les Empreses Culturals – Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya)
Authorship (direction, dramaturgy, performing): Juana Dolores. Assistant director: Amanda G. Eleuterio Audiovisual: Amanda G. Eleuterio [MORDISCO studio] Audiovisual technic design: Martin Elena Screens: Kike Blanco Screens construction: Jose Ignacio Noro Music: Modest Ferrer [FERAL studio] Political commissar: Eloi Gummà Artistic commissar: Sandy Moldavia Distribution: Art Republic
