Black Wedding to Coal was held in Spain’s coal country, in Gijón, at midnight, on July 23, 2011, produced in collaboration with LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial (Art and Industrial Creation Center). We spent our first several days in Gijón researching the region’s history of coal mining in order to address this history in our wedding, driving around with Pedro Soler, the head curator at LABoral, and our co-producer, Diana Pornoterrorista. Pedro set up Ecosexuality: Understanding Space through the Body, a workshop with our wedding collaborators from July 20–23, during which we could all work together to prepare for the wedding performance. His talented group of collaborators included dancers, ecologists, healers, performance artists, writers, psycho-magicians, and sex workers—a dynamic mix of punk, porn, and conceptual art. The wedding was scheduled to take place at midnight during Semana Negra, a literary festival that celebrates crime novels and mysteries.
On the front center stage, our team placed several big baskets of coal. Graham Bell was our fey master of ceremonies. We proceeded down the aisle to the tune of a raucous gypsy band with loud brass instruments and big drums, which was customary for weddings in that area. Monica Cofiño Arena and Paula Pin performed an erotic rendition of the Black Swan ballet, teetering on their toes while balanced on lumps of carbón. Cuco, as Vulcán, tried to abduct Annie, but Beth thwarted his attempts. Diana performed a fierce spoken-word piece about how the coal mine is like a woman’s pussy: “Dark, black, wet, and very dangerous.” She then pulled some chunks of coal out of her vagina. Amber McBride had traveled from Australia to join us. During the workshop, she had injured her leg, so during the wedding she was in a wheelchair, from which she suddenly lunged and poured thick black paint all over her big voluptuous breasts as she hopped around wildly on one foot, screaming in agony. After saying “I do,” we two brides kissed each other between the buttocks with a “black kiss.” We consummated our marriage to Coal by stripping out of our dresses and lying down face to face on a bed of coal while four women dipped pieces of coal into the bucket of blood. Slowly, ritualistically, and in recognition of the suffering caused by mining, the four women placed the bloody coal on our nude bodies. We thought of this wedding as a form of psycho-magic healing.
To view, our beautiful Wedding program and full credits click here.
