I googled jealous queen, and there she was: Juana of Castile, famous for being the mad queen, Juana La Loca. Her alleged insanity became entangled with political schemes, leading to her confinement for most of her life. She was married to Philip the Handsome. He and his entourage enforced Juana’s silence in order to control the throne. While her husband paraded his affairs in front of her eyes, Juana was accused of intense jealousy and being lost in love. These “diagnoses” were used to disempower her and deprive her of reason.
The crowns in this strange setting reflect the queen as both a historical figure and a content creator or influencer. We follow her routines, lurking behind the scenes where she films for her online audience.
The temporalities in the performance but she holds the fort are confusing, blurring the lines between past and present, fact and fiction. This fusion of eras invites the audience to reflect on the timeless nature of public perception and personal struggle. The queen is in a strange state between overexposure, confinement, connectedness, and isolation. She sits in an office chair, illuminated by selfie lights, trying to reconcile her duties and social pressures—she shifts between historical monologues, social media jargon, and internal voices.
The pebbles, fired at a high temperature together with the ceramics, overreact, falling to pieces and disintegrating into dust. The notion of overreacting—of being too emotional, of being "hysteric," of being gaslit to believe you have no right or reason to feel whatever you feel—has been and remains a feminist concern that the performance addresses.