The body in the current art
During the 20th century, we have seen, the representation of the body seems tormented or
critical. Currently, humanity appears threatened, remission in question, in the works of the end
of the century to now, but more often in the area of the photo, from the video or in the
performance. The photograph has acquired a prominent place and it multiplies the images of
the body and in particular also the body mutant. In general it refuses the naturalism.
First of all, a dehumanization seems to demarcate by the fact of the lack of face in the
representations.
This lack seems to come from the fact that in the 20th century on the face of man has been
trampled and he ceased to be the obvious and an ideal.
Several explanations can be made to this withdrawal:
The various shocks inflicted to the man are on the one hand, the 1 era world war with its
faces defeated, its gules bruised, faces that we cannot watch.
On the other hand during the 2 nd World War, humanity has declined in the face of
barbarism. This are the martyrs of the Shoah, the corpses to the bulging eyes of the
mass graves, that is to say the annihilation of the person.
This neantisation of the human person is currently found, in our time, with the
emergence of certain serious diseases and also on the occasion of the debates on
genetics, cloning or the transplantation of organs.
It may appear that any humanist position either obsolete now.
On the other hand, in the artistic trends of the 20th century, the body is put in question and
departs from the world of art by modernism and abstraction reigning. The supremacy of the
body since the Renaissance is rejected. Abstraction, the minimalism, marginalize the body until
the emergence of pop art. (Nevertheless a art radically non-figurative will perpetuate)
The human body will be reintroduced in art by the performance, that is to say by the body real
(in opposition to the body sculptural or painted.)
In fact, there is a western tradition which bound the art and the theater: the mysteries flared
into living paintings the illuminations of books or the scenes of the stained glass windows; and
conversely fouquet (in the hours of Etienne Chevalier) resumed in its illuminations scenes of
mysteries. Similarly, "Le Peignes progress" of Hogarth is a suite of paintings inspired by a
theater piece.
The practice of the performance was enriched thanks to the technique of the video and the
body is the main theme.
A few examples of current performance:
-Mona Hatoum practicing of sorts of endoscopy or Colostomies ,
- Vanessa BEECROFT and its facilities for dummies partially denuded
- The tattoo is a field of experimentation: the face of the artist HUAN is gradually covered with
Chinese characters, as if it was more and more tattooed.
-Jean-luc verna, photographer, shows of classical poses where the bodies are tattooed.
-The Chinese, Huang Yan, represented on its body different Chinese landscapes.
-A quote also, chokes hybridization of orlan and the surgery on his face.
-Some dummies in wax Rebecca Stevenson are inspired by the medical science. Reference is
made to the grounds religious and medical.
-Von Aagens is a German anatomist who realized the castings in resin of Dissections, whole
bodies or well only in fragments. Its exhibitions were a resounding success.
Many examples show that the body is at the center of concern, by the direct manifestation of
extras or well by interventions in aid of various practices, including the molding in report with
medical science. As it appears, in art, the relationship of the body to science can be important.
We must not deny the influence of biotechnology and the body mutants or the man, in some
cases, for its survival, must lend itself to manipulations or implants of more and more complex,
each part of the body which appear to be interchangeable as the parts of a mechanical. The
artists, by the digital processes have attempted to reconfigure the body and particularly the
face.
Lawick and Muller are the collusion of 2 faces, up to wobbling and merge in a unique being. It is
the morphing of the image.
Dijkstra, questioned the face of a same subject and it shows how the hair grow or how the skin
is brightening. Also the work of Thomas RUFF is to consider: it shows the reality of the face in all
its crudity and does not manipulate its images.
The face is defeated and is reconfigured in the hybridization of face of orlan: it mixes up the
strokes Europeans of African cultures. Many other achievements in photo and aimed a
recreation of the person, of the face and body have proved in art .
This can be seen, various practices in contemporary art focus their attention on the body and its
reconstruction, but it must be noted that the artistic techniques called "traditional", a sculpture
or painting, are not obsolete and can keep a sharpness and truth first due to their readability,
accessible to all. In the next article, I will make a description of a backdrop of 5m x 3 m and its
genesis. It is an implementation of the Pictogram entitled: "The Visible Human": it shows the
disintegration of the man and on the other its reconstruction.