Cassils

Cassils is internationally recognized as one of the leading voices at the intersection of performance and visual art. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, Cassils’ work has been presented worldwide. In 2023, Cassils was part of the Marina Abramović Institute takeover of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre.

Last year, Cassils electrified Kampnagel audiences with BECOMING AN IMAGE: In complete darkness, Cassils attacked a two-ton clay block with their naked body—visible only in the blinding flash of a camera, which burned a retinal afterimage into the viewers’ eyes. The work created a striking image of violence against the queer community—violence that often goes undocumented and remains absent from archives—while forging a moment of shared witnessing among the audience.

Now Cassils returns with INCONTROVERTIBLE BEING, a brand-new work in progress presented here for the first time in this form.

As a performer*, visual artist*, and queer activist*, Cassils is known for turning their own body into the raw material of their work. In INCONTROVERTIBLE BEING, the body once again becomes the site of confrontation: In total darkness, a drone-operated spotlight burns onto a heavy sheet of glass pressing against the naked body. Struggling against its weight, Cassils attempts to deflect the light—always at risk of the glass shattering on their body.

Witnessing the struggle from within the darkness, the audience becomes part of an arrangement that interrogates the violence of the gaze. INCONTROVERTIBLE BEING asks about the necessity—and the violence—of visibility: Who does it expose and endanger in times of increasing persecution and discrimination? And what does it mean, in this context, to bear witness?

Producer Buffy Sierra Lighting Designer Christopher Kuhl Video and photos Graham Kolbeins