The Rehabilitation of Saint Joan (2023)

Screening and performance

Piève, Corsica

 

A scratch performance and screening made as part of a three week residency at Providenza, Corsica. Based loosely on the execution and later rehabilitation and canonisation of Joan of Arc, this multimedia performance reimagines Joan as a dairy cow. Borrowing equally from Brecht, Babe the Sheep Pig, Coriscan religious processions and early cinema, The Rehabilitation of Saint Joan traces the final moments of a cow's life in Cumbria. An audience was invited to a screening in the local village church, followed by a eulogy delivered by artist Antoine Viviani. After the eulogy, footage of a cow browsing and grazing in a field appeared on the screen via wireless projector. The screen was lifted off of its stand and, along with its projector, was carried in a silent procession through the village and fields back to the residency, where it was reinstated in a field, allowing Joan to graze in perpetuity.