Natalia Manta | Healing Weapons

“Healing Weapons” is a series of sculptures that blend ceramics, metal, and fabric into hybrid forms resembling wearable weapons designed for sound, movement, or performance. They embody obsessions—called Nightmares—that are rooted in both pleasure and trauma. Through the combination of multimedia elements, these works explore adaptability and personal experience via material experimentation.

The sculptures evoke tools, musical and ritual instruments, bodily appendages, substrate mechanisms, and devices of torture or pleasure. Each functions autonomously while collectively forming a network of obsessions. Every ‘tool’ corresponds to a specific obsession—one Manta has pursued for years and wishes to further investigate through tests, experiments, and data collection. These obsessions recur cyclically, manifesting as habits or patterns over time.

In seeking adaptability, she engages in various practices: keeping a diary, marking her body, recording sounds, thoughts, and dreams, shooting short or long-form videos, and editing them into loops. Nightmares are structured from elements drawn from both pleasure and trauma, existing in shared psychological spaces, much like dreams.

The “Healing Weapons” project aims to create visual and sculptural antidotes—artistic responses to often-hidden but universal anxieties. By systematically documenting, sensing, and analyzing the impact of being present in the moment, the project becomes a leap of faith into our inner fears. It reflects the complex interplay of place, identity, and artistic evolution within Athens’ rapidly transforming cultural landscape.

The outcomes may include mixed-media sculptures, sound recordings, and photo and video documentation. Ultimately, the research could culminate in the ‘activation’ of “Healing Weapons” through collaborative sound and dance performances.