Mysterioso




Mysterioso (2021) video, 01:00 loop

The perception of extraordinary bodies has historically changed - equated with divine punishment, mystery, or displayed for entertainment. In an attempt to reclaim showmanship, I turn to magic shows. I perform one of the oldest and most popular illusionist tricks, sawing-a-woman-in-half, on myself. This puzzling dismemberment of the body becomes the common ground for the themes of disability, entertainment and time. In the absence of a magician and the invisibility of a large part of my body, I touch upon the illusionist skill of passing and my subjectivity as nobody's assistant.

commisioned for the NOW Project of the Starak Family Foundation
in the collection of the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art