{"id":161381,"date":"2026-03-23T16:27:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humboldtforum.org\/?post_type=event&p=161381"},"modified":"2026-03-23T16:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:30:37","slug":"the-mitochondrial-eve","status":"publish","type":"event","link":"https:\/\/www.humboldtforum.org\/en\/programm\/termin\/performance-en\/the-mitochondrial-eve-161381\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mitochondrial Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cMitochondrial Eve\u201d is referred to in research conducted in the Global North as the most recent common female ancestor of all people alive today. She lived an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 years ago, presumably in Ethiopia. Through her mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed down exclusively from mother to child, she is genetically connected to all humans living today.<\/p>\n

At the Humboldt Forum, surrounded by the gazes of the ancestral gallery of the electors and the recently AI-generated electresses on the 3rd floor, the Philippine-born, Denmark-based artist Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen unfolds her performance on motherhood, freedom of choice, and the physical and emotional engagement with babies and children. Wearing a white, sculptural costume \u2013 inspired by Kai Nielsen\u2019s sculpture Mother of Water<\/em> and overgrown with baby figures \u2013 accompanied by Vojta Drnek\u2019s accordion as well as text and interactive moments, she reveals how children lay claim to, demand from, and shape the mother\u2019s body \u2013 and how ambivalence, exhaustion, closeness, and self-determination intertwine within this dynamic.<\/p>\n

The performance invites the audience to experience the intimacy and power of care: from offering one\u2019s own body, to motherhood in the animal world, shared rituals, and moments in which \u201cnot being a mother\u201d is also given space. Here, private bodily experience encounters the historical gaze of sculptures depicting women and men from ruling families of the former Berlin palace \u2013 a reflection on closeness, responsibility, freedom of choice, and the cycle of life.<\/p>\n

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen says in her performance:<\/p>\n

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\u201cSometimes I am nothing \u2013 sometimes I am everything<\/em>
\nA bouncing ball \u2013 a solid wall<\/em>
\nInvisible \u2013 responsible<\/em>
\nA Swiss Army knife \u2013 no sex life<\/em>
\nA scapegoat \u2013 a lifeboat<\/em>
\nAn organiser \u2013 a geisha<\/em>
\nSometimes I am nothing \u2013 sometimes I am everything.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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A sensual and contemplative work that makes motherhood tangible in all its facets \u2013 between physical presence, emotional intensity, and dialogue with history and the public.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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