ca(pa)ble of power was performed by Vanessa Dahbour and Lara Salmon on September 28, 2024 at the Carbon Tierra Biennale in Ptolemaida, Greece. The piece was conceived after the artists learned of plans between the European Union and israel to construct the Great Sea Interconnector. If built, the interconnector will be the world’s longest underwater cable, runing along the Mediterranean Sea bed to connect the power grids of israel, Cyprus and Greece. This allows israel to sell energy from the land it illegally occupies to the EU, and sets them up to have control over the internet between Europe and Asia.

In their performance Lara uses Vanessa’s blood to trace the planned route of the interconnector across her body. This action condemns the injustice of extracting resources from occupied land without compensation to indigenous people. Vanessa is half Palestinian and Native American.

It also references Lara’s 2022 performance mines in which onlookers branded the nineteen main mines of Cyprus onto her back.

Video shot by Melita Couta; edited by Vanessa Dahbour and Mari Walker.


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