M HKA Ensembles

FLUID BODY

The fluidity of the body emerged as a notion after we saw the works by Vlad Monroe, Hugo Roelandt and Eleni Mylonas.

The body is fluid, rather than an entity with a concrete form and a stable meaning. The power of a body to transform as means of survival, communication, or even self-exploration is often forgotten because of chameleonic adaptation to social norms. Thus, when the body becomes a vehicle to implement state or religious power, acceptance of its changing nature is a de facto form of political dissent. Artists have embraced the body’s fluidity, often by applying that first on their own image, in order to bring themselves amidst the battlefield of identity politics, or simply for stepping into someone else’s shoes.

Monroe can be seen as the counterpart of Cindy Sherman; her identification focuses on the surface, his is one in which the subject takes over, as it would in icon painting. Roelandt modulated himself in a way that could be called hermaphroditic, if it were not more open than that; identity as a joyful vibration. Mylonas launches a dual investigation in the faces of Τahrir square protesters: by works inspired from images of their rough armor, published in the media coverage of the events and by trying to identify herself with them.

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