GALLERY 2010/2011

Description of campaign/project

"Body Conn/fli/cting Mind" is a participatory installation which will bring the public to explore and expose the potential connections and conflicts that lie between voice and body language in intimate relations. They will be asked to reflect upon the body connecting or conflicting the mind. When "No means no. Yes means yes" refers to well known affirmation about physical needs, "What does your body mean ?" questions the assumption that body language is easily listened to, understood or understandable. The installation will consist in two spaces: * A spheric intimate space that could eventually be closed for private forms of expression. It will be furnished with a few cushions and equipped with material (paint, pens, brushes, plasticine, paper, strings and a tape recorder). * An oblong open structure, visible and usable from the outside, whose walls will constitute a collective space of exhibition to hang and connect written, painted and modeled concepts about the subject. In the intimate space, the participants will be asked to produce text, shapes images in the intimate space and to dispose them in the open structure. Large rolls of paper and painting would allow among other ways of expression, some body print. The tape recorder content will be used for on-line exhibition of the production of the installation.

I use participatory installations as a way to have the public expressing and discussing the subject that I choose. Having studied the politics of communication devices in my Phd (wikis in particular), I'm putting lot of attention on how the description and the settings will lead the public to participate in a certain way. In "Bodies Conn/fli/cting Minds", the participants (that we assume to be composed of thinkers, artists, activists and feminists) will be asked to reflect upon the misunderstandings and complicities, consensus and violation which emerge when communication is torn between body and voice.

When bodies meet beautifully in silence or with unintelligible sounds, movements are understood as a language. But lack of verbal communication is also the source of controversies. Even though feminism have built some first steps toward more consensual intimate relations, cultural, gendered, political or physical contexts as well as lack of communication tools makes it difficult to relate carefully to ours and the other bodies. This installation is aimed at opening a space of expression and discussion about the following questions. How do bodies (dis)connect with minds, how do we communicate with or misunderstand each other when language becomes embodied, when the body is said to be talking, when we guess what the other mean, when we don't speak but only move in silence ? How do you take care of this sensitive connection? How do we eventually rebuild it when lost ? We want the participants to think about and share their own experiences with this issue. The production of the installation will be carefully documented, for diffusion on the web, but also for eventual adjustment in regard with possible reuse in other contexts.

I wanted to articulate the relation between power and love since a long time, but didn't know how to make the connection. Having recently been involved in different discussions dealing with misunderstanding concerning sexual abuse and mutual consent and discourse and relation to the body, this adaption of the "Our Coll/nn/ective Minds" into "Body Conn/fli/cting Minds" helped me in a necessary exploration of the issue. I'm looking forward it's exploration in a participatory context.