UNDER MY SKIN
(2005)
One of the weirdest things to do is to imagine oneself from inside. If you try to do it you’ll probably realize that it could be something very adventurous. It is almost like when you try to imagine how it is to be in outer space. It seems paradoxical: the most physical part of me is the one that is the most difficult to imagine, and once I do it becomes an invented fictional place. There is this whole world sitting in me and I basically have very few rational contact with it.
The idea of myself lies on the skin and mostly stays there: my looks, my smells, my facial expressions. Yet, what is happening inside, even as I am writing these words ? When I see pictures of medical scans showing the inside of my body I can hardly believe that it is “me”.
Having the anatomical or medical image of the body in mind, it is also possible to think of the body as a metaphor for a perfectly working yet absolutely mysterious and imaginative system. Body as utopia… Body as a country… Body as an impossibility… Body as a political organization… Body as a labyrinth in which we might want to get lost… Body as a dark room, as a holyday resort, as a fantasy landscape that can be easily mapped: vous – êtes ici!
For this piece we are “highjacking” a performative system of a guided tour. We let people inside the body and show them around. Maximum 20 at the time. We keep it intimate. Yet, not too intimate. On the skin level most of the times… although hopefully, for a moment, getting under it as well. Invisible and visible, present and absent… there is this person; we can’t see her but we know her since we are actually inside of her.
Performed by : Bill Aitchison, Andrea Bozic & Ivana Müller
Text : Ivana Müller in collaboration with Bill Aitchison & Andrea Bozic
Video : Nils De Coster
Sound & technique : Xavier van Wersch
set
Design: Ivana Müller, Nils De Coster & Bill Aitchison
Set advice: Nuno Almeida
Thanks to: Bojana Kunst & Maaike Bleeker
Under My Skin is a co-production of Productiehuis Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Schouwburg), STUK Kunstencentrum Leuven and Monty Antwerpen.