About
2023
How are certain spaces transformed both physically and symbolically with the use we give to the air? How do our bodies resist certain instruments of violence? How do we redefine our relationship with air?
“Love in a Mist” is a project that investigates the relationship between air and the violence of the invisible. The kind of violence that is linked to what we normally do not associate with instruments of cruelty. The management of air supply as a weapon for femi(ni)cide worldwide, especially in domestic spaces. As Monika Schröttle explains regarding domestic violence, “The violence is less visible to outsiders. The shame is even greater.” The shame that Schröttle is talking about is regarding how many of these German-killed women were well-educated and successful professionals and how their status made them feel that they were not allowed to speak. The image of strong successful German women makes society diminish any sign of violence or even ask if there is any issue. Many of them don’t even speak out with their therapist regarding their daily violence.
In Germany, domestic violence is becoming a hidden plague. In the last couple of years, the government report reveals that domestic violence increased by 3.4% in 5 years, and the overwhelming majority of victims are women. The official figures show that in 2021, assault resulting in death due to intimate partner violence for females was 113 females. That is 89% of the victims were women that year. Most of the perpetrators are partners or ex-partners and almost half of the victims lived with the perpetrator in a shared household. That means a German woman is killed by her partner once every three days.
Even when Germany has one of the highest rates of femi(ni)cide in Europe. Officially the government does not catalog any of these deaths as femi(ni)cide. For researchers, it is a difficult task to provide numbers and stats since there is no official data. One of the main institutions working on German violence against women is The Femicide Observation Center Germany. In 2020 they published, “EvidenceBased Data on German Femicides” by UN Special Rapporteur Dr. Kristina Felicitas Wolff. They have continually published more data since then.
One of the main concerns of the legal term “ intimate partner violence” is that it disregards homicides committed by brothers, sons, fathers, stalkers, etc., thus minimizing the scope.
“The fact that German society is exposed to an unspecific vocabulary that exclusively
benefits perpetrators by, for example, dehumanizing those killed via the objectifying
expression »extended suicide« posthumously to the extension of the killer, is another
glaring, structural grievance that must be eliminated.”
-Kristina Felicitas Wolff
Death by suffocation is legally called in Germany, attacks on air supply (choke, suffocate, strangulate) and it is the second modus operandi for killing women due to intimate partner violence. “Although attacks on the air supply are the second leading cause of death, the criminal law assessment »bodily injury« does not map the attack directly on life (Wolff).” Meaning that this term led to sentence reductions or being guilty of manslaughter instead of murder. Air as an indirect weapon becomes the perfect instrument of cruelty.
A sensory art installation that uses the senses of smell, sight, touch, and hearing to immerse us in a space where the invisible becomes visible. A space that looks beautiful at first glance, linked to the feminine west social construction, and gradually transforms into a suffocating place where it invites us to question the murders of women caused by attacks on air supply.
Beauty creates a barrier, it dazzles us from the outside and doesn't let us in. If we add to the formula strength, education, and success, then we got this perfect place for violence to live and go unnoticed. In the aftermath, are you able to smell the violence?
How can society demand the government to investigate, name and prevent femi(ni)cides? How can we keep the beauty and get rid of violence?
How to talk about violence to generate thoughts that nourish us and not destroy us? How to search, find the tools, and transform the objects that we have in our households in order to build a shelter and eventually recover the spirit?
Bibliography:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/domestic-violence-in-germany-on-the-rise-government-report-reveals/2747401#
https://www.goethe.de/en/kul/ges/eu2/fms/21518943.html
Wolff, K (2022). Germany: Deadly Consequences Based on Ignorance of Rule of Law. Außeruniversitäre Aktion -AuA.
“Love in a Mist” is a project that investigates the relationship between air and the violence of the invisible. The kind of violence that is linked to what we normally do not associate with instruments of cruelty. The management of air supply as a weapon for femi(ni)cide worldwide, especially in domestic spaces. As Monika Schröttle explains regarding domestic violence, “The violence is less visible to outsiders. The shame is even greater.” The shame that Schröttle is talking about is regarding how many of these German-killed women were well-educated and successful professionals and how their status made them feel that they were not allowed to speak. The image of strong successful German women makes society diminish any sign of violence or even ask if there is any issue. Many of them don’t even speak out with their therapist regarding their daily violence.
In Germany, domestic violence is becoming a hidden plague. In the last couple of years, the government report reveals that domestic violence increased by 3.4% in 5 years, and the overwhelming majority of victims are women. The official figures show that in 2021, assault resulting in death due to intimate partner violence for females was 113 females. That is 89% of the victims were women that year. Most of the perpetrators are partners or ex-partners and almost half of the victims lived with the perpetrator in a shared household. That means a German woman is killed by her partner once every three days.
Even when Germany has one of the highest rates of femi(ni)cide in Europe. Officially the government does not catalog any of these deaths as femi(ni)cide. For researchers, it is a difficult task to provide numbers and stats since there is no official data. One of the main institutions working on German violence against women is The Femicide Observation Center Germany. In 2020 they published, “EvidenceBased Data on German Femicides” by UN Special Rapporteur Dr. Kristina Felicitas Wolff. They have continually published more data since then.
One of the main concerns of the legal term “ intimate partner violence” is that it disregards homicides committed by brothers, sons, fathers, stalkers, etc., thus minimizing the scope.
“The fact that German society is exposed to an unspecific vocabulary that exclusively
benefits perpetrators by, for example, dehumanizing those killed via the objectifying
expression »extended suicide« posthumously to the extension of the killer, is another
glaring, structural grievance that must be eliminated.”
-Kristina Felicitas Wolff
Death by suffocation is legally called in Germany, attacks on air supply (choke, suffocate, strangulate) and it is the second modus operandi for killing women due to intimate partner violence. “Although attacks on the air supply are the second leading cause of death, the criminal law assessment »bodily injury« does not map the attack directly on life (Wolff).” Meaning that this term led to sentence reductions or being guilty of manslaughter instead of murder. Air as an indirect weapon becomes the perfect instrument of cruelty.
A sensory art installation that uses the senses of smell, sight, touch, and hearing to immerse us in a space where the invisible becomes visible. A space that looks beautiful at first glance, linked to the feminine west social construction, and gradually transforms into a suffocating place where it invites us to question the murders of women caused by attacks on air supply.
Beauty creates a barrier, it dazzles us from the outside and doesn't let us in. If we add to the formula strength, education, and success, then we got this perfect place for violence to live and go unnoticed. In the aftermath, are you able to smell the violence?
How can society demand the government to investigate, name and prevent femi(ni)cides? How can we keep the beauty and get rid of violence?
How to talk about violence to generate thoughts that nourish us and not destroy us? How to search, find the tools, and transform the objects that we have in our households in order to build a shelter and eventually recover the spirit?
Bibliography:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/domestic-violence-in-germany-on-the-rise-government-report-reveals/2747401#
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/en/german-women-killed-in-domestic-violence-once-every-three-days-li.118018
https://www.goethe.de/en/kul/ges/eu2/fms/21518943.html
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Women/SR/Femicide/2020/CSOs/femicide-observation-center-germany.pdf
https://focg.org/about/
https://www.slowtravelberlin.com/domestic-violence-in-berlin/
https://femicide-watch.org/node/920874
Wolff, K (2022). Germany: Deadly Consequences Based on Ignorance of Rule of Law. Außeruniversitäre Aktion -AuA.