Tales of a Phoenix
The Letting Go Project
Yana Schnitzler

Tales of a Phoenix: The Letting Go Project is a visual art exhibition and durational performance that harnesses the power of ritual to bring women together from across the world in a unified release of old patterns that no longer serve their personal growth. Over the past year, women contributed pieces of fabric inscribed with their intentions of what they wish to let go of. In a meditative performance seated in the gallery window, artist Yana Schnitzler will stitch these testimonies together into a room-filling skirt, representing the global collective feminine voice. With pieces from 36 different countries and states, the work creates a tapestry of personal stories from all walks of life and cultures, offering a glimpse of where women stand with the struggles they face today. Female onlookers are invited to participate by sharing their desires for release on a provided piece of fabric that will be added to the performance project. As the garment grows over the five-week period, it will emerge as a sea of fabric filling the entire space.

Following this durational event at Chashama, the skirt will travel to exhibitions from New York City, to Detroit, Washington D.C., and Bonn, Germany, for people to observe this sacred object, and inviting more women to participate in this growing work. The project will culminate in a final dance performance, with Schnitzler wearing the skirt, and completing with the destruction of it as a powerful symbol of letting go, release, and healing, currently scheduled for Fall 2021.

About the Artist: 

Yana Schnitzler HUMAN KINETICS has been presented at numerous museums, galleries, and art festivals as well as corporate events throughout the US and Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Peabody Essex Museum, Boston, MA; Hamburg Art Week, Germany; BMW Headquarters Munich; Concorso d’Eleganza, Lake Como, Italy and Opera Plage, Nice, France, and was recently featured on three large-scale billboards in Times Square. Yana Schnitzler HUMAN KINETICS has received funding support from New York State Council on the Arts, Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, German General Consulate New York, and Friends of Hudson River Park, among others, as well as corporate support from Citibank and Jana Water. Their work has been largely featured in the press, including The New York Times, Nice-Matin (France), The ExBerliner (Germany), Levante News (Italy), The Morning Call and Star News.

For more information on Yana visit her website or follow her on Instagram.