GRUNT

Diane Mahín received a grant to develop GRUNT. The performance explores the impact of trauma on the human body and the impossibility of hiding it, starting from the raw language of physicality and vocality. The investigation begins with growling, an extreme form of voice use from the Death Metal genre. From this question arises a character who experiences a dissociation between what she wants to communicate and what the voice actually expresses. Her body language and facial expressions seem to have a lighthearted and charming conversation with the audience, while her voice betrays deep-seated violence and trauma. Her tone of voice transforms from attempts at communication to involuntary, visceral cries of distress and eventually to a complete takeover of her body. GRUNT reveals the hidden layers of trauma through the raw and unfiltered expression of inner chaos.

Diane is a Dutch-Iranian performance maker and sociologist. Through sound, image, and the physical, she scrutinizes the human body as a material object in order to dissect social constructions. In this way, she brings absurdity, darkness, reflection, and humor to light in looking at social reality. Dissociation, the void, and death are recurring themes in her work. Normally hidden human sounds such as crying, gut sounds, and roars are key for her to see these socially-constructed behaviors from a different perspective. Having studied at Goldsmiths, University of London and Toneelacademie Maastricht, Diane recently graduated from Sandberg Institute with the Re:master Opera. In addition to her individual practice, Diane Mahín works closely with her brother Manuel Groothuysen in their collective FADAT.