Performance with Madara Grāpe
Performed on May 29th, 2025 
A part of the opening of the exhibition Pārnese 
Photos by Liene Ieviņa

This performance is a companion to my video work We Were Here Once, shifting from collective presence to an intimate ritual between two people. Here queer space is not a crowd, but a gesture. A glance. It explores what queer space can look like when created and shared at the smallest scale, through touch and trust. The queer purification ritual - immersion of the body, in whole or in part, usually in water, but often in another medium, such as shamelessness, recklessness or fantasy. It is often practised as a ritual of personal and communal purification and less often as a processual exploration of queer identity.

The pool is our soft perimeter. A fragile sanctuary between us and the world. Inside, we immerse ourselves. Not to scrub ourselves clean, but to return to who we already are. This is a ritual of undoing, of touching what has been hidden, of granting permission to exist fully, without apology. This is a moment of transformation that ripples outward. It is an invitation to all who witness it - join the stream and let something go.