Archive 2021 KubaParis

A body withhout it's Flesh

All named: A body without it's Flesh 2021
All named: A body without it's Flesh 2021

Location

P/////AKT ( P/////AKTPOOL)

Date

10.07 –14.08.2021

Curator

PAKT

Photography

Charlott Markus

Subheadline

A Body without its Flesh is the second of three presentations by Benjamin Francis, who graduated from ArtEZ BEAR Fine Art Arnhem in 2020. (video of performance is a preview)

Text

A Body without its Flesh 11 July – 15 August 2021 Thu-Sun, 14-18 hrs While self-consciousness depends on internal and external processes inside and outside of the body, the body as such does not likewise depend on a self-consciousness, causing a form of asymmetry in their joint movement. The body creates errors that influence our ability to be fully conscious, which in turn causes us to unconsciously feel things or to be touched by something without actually sensing it. A Body Without Its Flesh is an ongoing research project that evolved from Benjamin Francis’s interest in dance performances and the realization that the errors that occur during the rehearsals in a dance class are often more interesting than the eventual performance. After the project’s initial output (the 2020 performance Copy and Paste as well as some sculptural works) his research into the non-harmonic chords and errors shifted to related themes such as discipline, power relations, hierarchy, religion and cleansing, resulting in a new performance that is dealing with some of the dogma’s that exist within the art world as well as the notion of making mistakes. For his second presentation at P/////AKT Francis has created a setting that is both theatrical and ceremonial: a stage, a classroom and a morgue – inhabited by sculptures and props that reflect on the different references and, at set times, by performers and an audience. A Body Without Its Flesh is both an exhibition and an activated setting for a performance, addressing body and space, repetition and imitation, decay and restoration. The performance takes place in the setting of a classroom and is executed by an audience member who will be asked to take on the role of the teacher and a group of performers who acting like students. Both parties are following a script in which various dogma’s relating to the art world and the mistakes that occur ‘in translation’, eventually resulting in something resembling a ritual that is echoing the concepts that underly the various props and sculptures that are present in the installation. A Body without its Flesh is an ongoing research project that started from Benjamin Francis’s interest in dance performances and the realization that the errors that occur during the rehearsals in a dance class are often more interesting than the eventual performance. After the project’s initial output (the 2020 performance Copy and Paste as well as some sculptural works) his research into the non-harmonic chords and errors shifted to related themes such as discipline, power relations, hierarchy, religion and cleansing, resulting in a new performance that is dealing with some of the dogma’s relating to the art world and the mistakes that occur ‘in translation’, eventually resulting in something resembling a ritual that is echoing the concepts that underly the various props and sculptures that are present in the installation. Our tongues are being cleansed and our computers are being rebooted. That what is uncertain is afraid of falling into the abyss, to a point where it becomes formless.