Irene de Gelder

Connecting The Menstruation And Food Cycle

"Cyclus" a video performance by Cecile Hübner

While menstruation blood is seen as waste, food is almost seen as the opposite, a necessity that’s always present and welcome. How can these two be brought together? Cecile makes it happen in her video performance called ‘Cyclus’, where she uses her menstruation blood as soil to grow watercress.  

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Cyclus I - A still from Cecile Hübner's video performance at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Cecile Hübner

During her performance at the Stedelijk Museum in November 2016 , Cecile showed a pre-recorded video and a live stream next to each other. In the pre-recorded video she cuts a menstruation pad to be the same size and shape as a cracker that you see in the live stream. She then spreads out her menstruation blood on the pad and sprinkles it with watercress seeds. Meanwhile, on the live stream she spreads cream cheese on the cracker and uses the watercress that grew from her menstruation blood to make a nice snack. Following up to the video performance she, together with someone of the audience, ate the home-grown snack!

By creating this performance, Cecile tries to make people realise that the menstruation and food cycle are not that different. Maybe it is time for us to revaluate menstruation blood and stop seeing it as dirty waste.

Hungry for more? Read an article on her previous work here (In Dutch) and follow Cecile on Instagram.