Hundreds of eggs cover the floor of MAAT, in the Belém area of Lisbon. None are broken. Among them, with a cane and slow steps, moves Anna Maria Maiolino, an 83-year-old Italo-Brazilian artist and winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Every movement seems calculated. The cane touches first, the foot follows after. As she walks, she asks those present in Portuguese whether they are immigrants. No one responds with words. The audience only watches, waiting for the crack that never comes.
The work is called KA and does not need to break anything to unsettle. The silence of the intact eggs weighs more heavily than if they were to crack beneath her feet. In that balance between fragility, tension, and control lies the true center of the performance.