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 don’t want to show ourselves as we really are. We prefer a secure connection, overprotected, the one that we adopt every day, a bit like this: “https:// (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
we may name it wishing for anonymity? What would be the reaction of passengers and citizens by meeting every day somebody with a second skin? Will they want to join him?
Perhaps.
We need volunteers, person-objects of Anonymity.
It’s like a multicolored dump, but the Artist this time is not in it.
What happens if He’s the only one not having fun?
photo: Morten Stricker
More and more often we see urban performances or artistic acts that alter the daily life of citizens; in which the Artist meets the mass and at the same time is in conflict with it.
Now the Artist places himself on the opposite side as an orchestral conductor, necessary, but invisible. The revelation will happen in the exact time of a performative dinner, as the sound of a gong. In an “exact time” that the ancient Greeks call “Kairos”.
Above the Skin is an artistic act that move from this need:
to meet up, naked and covered (to say it with an oxymoron) by a second skin.
PART 1
ETHICS
Artist dedicated to the relationship to the “other”, winner of a residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in partnership with the City of Paris, Giuseppe L. Bonifati questions our society that standardizes, clears singularities while the communities are trying to assert themselves with their clothes, their customs and beliefs. Between the Cité Internationale des Arts in the heart of Paris and La Fabrique des Pépinières in Montreuil, Giuseppe L.Bonifati finds men and women from around the world. They intersect, coexist, but do not seem to communicate. To generate possible encounters, Giuseppe L. Bonifati develops a paradoxical approach, borrowing a Zentai suit, a combination that covers the body in its entirety. A synthetic and garish skin which prevents to identify the wearer. In this outfit, insulated and plunged into a situation of loneliness, Giuseppe L.Bonifati stays in observation and waiting position in different places of the city. His project resonates with this formulation of the philosopher of otherness Emmanuelle Levinas «autrui est visage».
Urban & Social Interferences
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- DAY 1 “A district as well as its people they 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 our 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 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 “Ferencz 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 cross 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 with which he lived and created several encounters along 30 days
PART 2
FREE WILL
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?”
In Hungary, suddenly one of Europe’s most anti-immigration nations with its planned border fence, it’s hard to say. Public opinion has swung against migrants in a year when thousands of asylum seekers have entered Hungary. A poll in April found that almost half of Hungarians classified themselves as anti-immigrant. This has also coincided with a pointed government campaign, running a Hungarian-language billboard that stir up anti-welcoming attitudes. It features slogans that tell to respect Hungarian culture and laws, and warns
“if you come to Hungary, you should not take Hungarians’ jobs”.
Few weeks ago, coming back to Budapest, this has been the welcoming message for me too.
I therefore decided, as Artist, to react to all this plunged into my new black skin.
We may name it an “act of civil disobedience” or better an invitation to reflect on the otherness,
now more than ever so necessary in this country, as in all of Europe.
Actions & Social Interference
“March against Dehumanization & Indifference”
“Nem Magyar” (Non Hungarian) photo: Monika Fischbein
Magyar? (Hungarian) photo: Monika Fischbein
PART 3
AESTETHICS
The last part of the project is composed by a Workshop + Final Performance with local participants. Before the conclusive performance, the group will produce 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 sits at a long table with a special dinner for selected guests, locals and foreigners, these last completely covered by a second skin, but somebody ruins the banquet. Among them he proves to be an intruder: the Different. Who, under a second skin, will reveal a third one. What will remain instead above the skin 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/