Despite the many humanitarian battles of nowadays, we have good reason to say that we do not care about each other. No matter the faces, the scars, the form of the eyes, we do not want to show ourselves as we really are. To connect with others in the everyday life, we prefer to use a secure and protecting cover, a bit like this: “https://” (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol). May we name this a wish for anonymity? What would be the reaction of the passengers of a city, if they met every day somebody literally covered up, dressed in a second skin? Would they join the Different? What if He is the only one not having fun?
photo: Morten Stricker
Above the Skin is an artistic and urban action that move from this need: to meet in the urban space, to show ourselves naked and covered at the same time (to say it with an oxymoron) by a second skin.
PART 1
ETHICS
Winner of research application of the Cité internationale des Arts in partnership with the City of Paris in 2015, artist of the human relationship, Giuseppe L. Bonifati investigates the contradiction between our society as a whole, unifying, standardising, concealing differences, and the sub-communities struggling to conserve their identities, their clothes, their uniforms, their customs and beliefs. Between the Cité internationale des Arts, in the heart of Paris and La Fabrique des Pépinières in the suburban Montreuil, Giuseppe L. Bonifati found men and women from all around the world. They intersected, coexisted, but did not seem to communicate. To generate possible encounters, Giuseppe developed a paradoxical approach, borrowing “a suit”: a version of Zentai that entirely covers the body from head to toe. A kind of synthetic skin which leaves no cues to identify the wearer. In this outfit, plunged into a situation of loneliness, Giuseppe was remaining in observation in different points of the city. The project of Giuseppe L. Bonifati resonates with this formulation of the philosopher of otherness, Emmanuelle Levinas: « autrui est visage ». (P. Bonnaffè, Les Pépinières Européennes)
Urban & Social Interferences
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- DAY 1 “A district as well as its people must be conquered slowly, without hurry. Walking on tiptoe…”
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- DAY 2 “Can I change skin like an animal? What happens to the old skin if I get a new one?
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- DAY 3 “I like to listen to the stories of others. As I am, they could tell any deepest secret…”
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- DAY 4 “I will always find friends who will join me without an oath to my flag “
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- DAY 5 “Something or someone is missing in the mosaic of my days. No man is an island, entire of itself…”
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- DAY 6 “First comes a full stomach, then comes ethics…”
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- DAY 7 “I don’t need money. I need feelings, words, of carefully chosen words…”
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- DAY 8 “All work and no play makes me a dull boy”
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- DAY 9 “Before and after: how many masks are we forced to put on every day?
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- DAY 10 “A portrait of the artist as a “young” man…” photo by: Edgar Saillen
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- DAY 11 “Never mind to be known for the artworks. It is more important to be recognized as human beings by the others…” photo: Christian J Floquet
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- DAY 12 “We were 4 friends at the bar and we wanted to change the world…”
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- DAY 13 “If you see a pink spot in the society, perhaps that’s me…”
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- DAY 14 “I am a force of the Past. My love lies only in tradition…”
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- DAY 15 “All play and no work makes me a mere toy…”
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- DAY 16 “The only country I belong to…”
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- DAY 17 ” I cannot understand if you are black or white under that skin…”
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- DAY 18 “For the music is your special friend. Dance on fire as it intends…”
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- DAY 19 “Moi dans le tourbillon de la vie…”
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- DAY 20 “The best way of encountering the Other is not even to notice the color of his eyes… ” (E.L.)
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- DAY 21 “Ferenc is my homeless friend in Paris, of Serbian-Hungarian origin. I told him that in Hungary they want to fence off a border with Serbia… He laughed a lot hearing this news! Between us however there are no boundaries, as you can see… ” instant photo by: Meli Fernández
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- DAY 23 The face, in its nudity and defenselessness, signifies: “Do not kill me”. I question myself: “Am I still the innocent child in the photo of my mother?”
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- DAY 24 “To challenge a champion of Taekwondo; to make in several pieces a 60 milliard banknote; to frighten a child with a gopro camera; to drink vodka with a straw from the glass of a complete unknown; to give the first kick of ever to a rugby ball; to arrive without invitation to the lunch of a Congolian family… To realize finally that empathy and contact with the Other, when sincere, can show beyond even a second skin.”
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- DAY 25 “The world seen through the eyes of a child…”
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- DAY 26 “Vous n’êtes pas des extra-terrestres, mais des terrestres-extra…”
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- DAY 27 “Revolution is not a dinner party…”
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- DAY 28 “Different colours, same condition: foreigners…”
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- DAY 29 “If a thing loves it is infinite…” (W.B.)
Action & Performance
“Marche contre la Deshumanisation et l’Indifference”
After 10 km marching from Paris to Montreuil, the Artist buried his second skin in which he lived and created several encounters along 30 days.
PART 2
FREE WILL
In Hungary, suddenly one of Europe’s most anti-immigration nations with its planned border fence, it was hard to say at that time. Public opinion swung against the refugees in short time, when thousands of asylum seekers had entered Hungary. A poll in April 2015 showed that almost half of Hungarians classified themselves as anti-immigrant. The surge of xenophobia was boosted also by an explicit anti-immigration campaign from the government, displaying billboard messages in Hungarian which stirred up discriminative attitude. They featured slogans commanding to respect Hungarian culture and laws, and warning that “if you come to Hungary, you should not take Hungarians’ jobs”. Coming back to Budapest after the two months residency in Paris, this was the welcome… I therefore decided, as artist, to react by wrapping myself into a new black skin, as an immigrant. We may name this as an “act of civil disobedience” or better as an invitation to reflect on the otherness, more than ever so urgent in this country, as in all of the rest of Europe.
SYMPTOMS
I had already felt the first symptoms during the flight, passing over France. But the suspicion came halfway, over the Central Eastern Alps… “Am I about to become again a foreigner?”
DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT
My skin has become inexplicably darker, so I visited a specialist for a medical check. After several attempts to get on top of the problem, a hopeless diagnosis arrived: “You are a foreigner”. I am a foreigner, once again. What will be the treatment?”
Actions & Social Interference
“March against Dehumanization & Indifference”
“Nem Magyar” (Non Hungarian) photo: Monika Fischbein
Magyar? (Hungarian) photo: Monika Fischbein
PART 3
AESTETHICS
“Aesthetic, ethics and free will”
The project is composed by a workshop, urban action & performance with local participants. Before the conclusive performance, the group produces several urban actions, walking through the streets of the city, interfering with the social routine and calling the attention of passengers.
“The Master of Ceremony is sitting at a long table, prepared with a special dinner for selected guests, locals and foreigners, those latters completely covered by second skin. In an unexpected moment, among them one turns to be an intruder: the one who is unalike even between the Different ones, who, under a second skin, will reveal a “third” one. What will happen instead to the cover-up of the others?
INTERVIEWS
DENMARK http://godsbanen.dk/husk-passet-above-the-skin
FRANCE http://www.naja21.com/fr/espace-journal/giuseppe-l-bonifati-sur-la-peau
SLOVENIA http://mariborinfo.com/novica/kultura/