Satyricon Beta

door Fleur Pierets | mei 21, 2016 | Movies

Satyricon Beta

Text JF. Pierets Photos Lukas Beyeler

“I’ve promised you the story of my adventures for a long time. Today I’m finally going to keep my word. My unhealthy curiosity and my depraved imagination are the true product of Roman immorality, which is the basis of your education.” These opening sentences are the start of a new video by one of Et Alors? Magazine’s favourite artists Lukas Beyeler. Satyricon or The Book of Satyrlike Adventures, is based on the work of fiction believed to have been written by Petronius Arbiter and shows us a highlighted version of Beyeler’s favourite scenes.

The video is a bit like a painting; you observe very slowly.
Originally the book was huge, but they lost quite a lot over time. Basically there are about 300 pages left. Speculation as to the size of the original puts it somewhere on the order of a work of thousands of pages. In the video I wanted to show that there is something missing, like an unfinished puzzle. It goes from one chapter to another without a clear story line. There’s no plot, nor a narrative, nothing that resembles a story. We just observe the protagonist going slowly from one scene to another. The slow rhythm is accentuated by my use of 120 frames per second. The stationary camera makes you feel that there is no fixed time.

Tell me about your work method when it comes to story telling?
After I read the book I just took the scenes which spoke to me the most. A lot of them are the ones that wouldn’t interest a hetero filmmaker. In one of them the witch provides the narrator with a cure for something you don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s syphilis, maybe gonorrhea, or maybe he’s just impotent. It’s a scene I very much liked, maybe it’s because you wouldn’t expect such scenes in a book where the action is happening before Christ. I often have the feeling that everything before Christ was in a way easier because there was no taboo, no religion, no morale, and everybody was bisexual. What you see is in that book is the sex habit and the social behaviour of the old Roman Empire. Most of them have no objective in their lives, no jobs. They just eat and have sex all the time.

Both Fellini and Polidoro tackled Satyricon in 1968 and 1969.
If you watch Fellini’s movie, it’s only about twenty percent of the actual story. The minotaur, the labyrinth and many other characters are nowhere to be found within’ the book. Gian Luigi Polidoro is much closer to the original text but replaced the gay character by a woman.

A true Hollywood phenomenon.
Indeed. When Disney makes a movie about Hercules, he’s of course one hundred per cent straight. But Hercules was bi in the texts. So there’s this straight-washing going on all the time. Same when movies or media talk about Da Vinci or Lincoln, there’s a lot of heterosexualising, if you can call it like that. I also guess that what we read now is very different from the original book. From BC till now, people copied the texts. And those scribes were often religious so sometimes when there was a sex scene, they would just leave it out. Some of them would even re-write the story the way they wanted it to be. Nobody will ever know how close the current text is from the original. So you know, after all this text massacre, incorrect Latin translation and straight-washing corrections: I thought, now I’m going write my own version where Ascyltos is the Main Character. And I’m going to let him having an affaire with whoever I want.

‘My work is about my environment, and of course part of it is a certain gay scene. It’s my life so in a way I just project my surrounding.’

You’re very outspoken about the gay-factor in your work.
My work is about my environment, and of course part of it is a certain gay scene. It’s my life so in a way I just project my surrounding. My inspiration comes from the people I work with. When I meet the right person: it just happens. The idea for Satyricon Beta has been going through my head for about two years now but I didn’t act upon it until I met the right people to do it. As there’s no rush to execute a project, I do not believe in casting for this kind of artistic projects. But when I see the right actor or model that can match a certain project then there’s no way back. I think there’s a special actor for any project, you just have to cross paths. Unfortunately I cannot change my ideas after that. I get obsessed with that person and I can be a real pain in the ass until they agree to do the project. I’m a stalker without a budget, so I guess people just have to trust me, or not.

Why did you choose to make the video in Italian?
I’ve read the book in Italian, in French and in English, and I chose to go for Italian because it’s the closest to Latin. Since my actor, Rocco Schira, is Swiss-Italian and is a voice talent, we had to use all that in the video. I wrote it in French, my mother tongue, translated it to Italian and subtitled in English. For me it was good to mix up all these languages because you really feel how it changes the text. I like to work with language and translations. They all have their different culture and colour which highly influences the image. You’ll find some text from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, some poems of Robert Lee Frost and of course some original parts of Gaius Petronius Arbiter. We also shot the video in Ticino, the Italian part of Switzerland. The nature is beautiful there, very Roman and completely cut of from the rest of the world. Not an easy place to live in but a great location to shoot.

Satyricon Beta will be shown at the Queer Biennial II in LA. What happens after that?
I’m very happy to premiere that video in Los Angeles at the Biennial, but ‘after that’ to tell you the truth:
I have no idea. Sometimes the work travels to other festivals or is screened in other gallery spaces but you never know if it’s gonna work or die there. My biggest problem in this creative process is that when I’m done, I’m done ! The showing of the work doesn’t interest me much, it’s not part of the work itself anymore. That’s why I’m not the best seller of my own work: I love to make it but I always feel way to vulnerable to take it on display. It shows too much of myself. When a project is finished, I’m just starting something else. My part is to create, to shoot, to edit and to spend time with people making it. You think I should get an agent?

www.queerbiennial.com
www.lukasbeyeler.com

Satyricon Beta
2016, Full HD, 16/9, 21min
Written and directed by Lukas Beyeler
Ascyltos Rocco Schira
Oenothea Nils Amadeus Lange
Camera operator Carlotta Holy
Voice over Rocco Schira & Ayana Glam
Subtitles Anja Draeger

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 18.

Read the complete issue here.

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Ayakamay

door Fleur Pierets | mei 21, 2016 | Gender Art

Ayakamay

Text JF. Pierets Photos Courtesy of Ayakamay

Artist Ayakamay explores the interrelationship between photography and performance. She simultaneously appropriates traditional Japanese cultural aesthetics and creates a dialogue with contemporary American urbanity and femininity, through the whimsical lens of her personal experience as a Japanese-American woman. A conversation about interactive performances, pursuing your goal and fitting in.

Can you take me through the creative process of your last performance GENDERLESS?
Charles Leslie, founder of the Leslie – Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York City, asked me if I wanted to perform in their space because he liked my previous work, IDOL WORSHIP, and because he thinks I’m a gay man trapped in a woman’s body. I felt very liberated after he’d said that. The title GENDERLESS comes from the fact that Ayakamay believes that there is no gender. I’ve been with women, men, and at one point I even had a gay boyfriend. I was curious to explore what being without gender meant to me. I know that biologically I’m a woman, but when you talk about your feelings, your soul, or something that you cannot see, it doesn’t have any gender. So I shot hundreds of portraits of myself, trying to express my femininity and masculinity. If you look at your face you can see both your mother and your father, I was splitting it up to figure out which part comes from whom. I discovered that one side of my face looks like my mother and the other like my father so I made photo prints where I mirror those exact sides. Therefor giving myself a more masculine, feminine or neutral face.

People often judge someone’s gender by looking at the face, since that’s the most identifying part of your body. By shooting my own picture and using make-up and facial hair, I realized that it was only about changing things on the outside. Inside, I’m still a woman in a woman’s body. I kept searching on what being genderless meant to me and at one point I even got confused and depressed because I realized I could not escape from my gender. Through the portraits I started creating I searched for a way to become genderless, if that even exists. The most significant thing I kept changing in the portraits was my hairstyle. So a few days before the performance I decided I had to have my hair shaved by the audience.The creative process was basically me, thinking I was genderless – which I was not – and then wanting to become that. Kind of looking for a utopian state.

Did the audience willingly participate?
They did, the audience took turns in cutting my hair and they were more emotional than I was. My performance is all about the third person. The audience comes in and they complete my work. The fact that people wanted to take my strands of my hair home with them, became very touching to me. For me, it was a successful performance because nobody stabbed me with the scissors.

Is your work always so intense?
I think my performances are indeed quite intense but they have a double layer. By making things very fabulous and gay, I try to make eye candy to get people’s attention at first. Yet in the end my work is very dark and contains a spiky message. One of my performances is that I dress up in a kimono with a big red wig. I don’t talk but when people ask me what I do, I ask if I can clean their ear. Some people say yes, some of them say “hell no!”. I’m challenging what people think. Some of them think I’m just a weirdo who will poke their brain out with the bamboo stick that I use, but somehow most of the people trust me and lay down on my lap. The performance causes a possibility of danger, but it is mainly about trust.

‘By making things very fabulous and gay, I try to make eye candy to get people’s attention at first. Yet in the end my work is very dark and contains a spiky message.’

Is it you performing, or are you in character?
I never feel like it’s another persona. I’ve been moving between different countries because of my parents’ job and I’ve always had difficult times fitting in to each place. I always knew that if I made new friends, it would only last for 3 months because then we would move again and I had to be another person all over again. I know I could have just been myself, but I didn’t want to get hurt so I made it impersonal. So I tried to be someone who came and went, which is something I still do in my performance. It’s a way to express where I came from, a different line to communicate with people.

Is performing something you have to do in order to keep balanced?
I think so, yes, because I was always an outsider, never able to fit in anywhere. People were always asking if I was a man or a woman, if I was Japanese or American, and at one point I didn’t want to answer those questions anymore. They made me uncomfortable because I didn’t feel I had to choose either one. Going somewhere and creating a surreal and odd atmosphere through my work, makes people as uncomfortable as I am. Sometimes there’s a harmony and that’s when people enjoy what they are seeing and experiencing. So yes, I have to say that I do have to perform in order to fully be who I am. In fact I’ve been performing for as long as I can remember.

Is the world you’re creating a fantasy?
I think it’s the opposite. I live in that world but it doesn’t fit in real life. For me it’s a fantasy to have a lover, to go to a movie theatre, eat dinner, and to cuddle at night. Things that people do on a regular basis are things that I cannot relate to.

When looking at your CV, I read that you had a breakthrough in 2014. What happened?
Until 2014 I was doing my performances, but making money helping out in photo productions. I didn’t earn very much but even if I hardly made enough money to pay the month’s rent, I realized that when I was stuck in one place, I was unable to see my future. In May of that year I decided to quit everything – I didn’t even have any savings – and go to Europe. Previously in New York I had met people from the Licht Feld gallery in Basel, Switserland. I wanted to be part of the art world so I needed to see more, show more, so basically my plan was to go to Switzerland and tell the people from the gallery I wanted to work with them. When they took me in right away, it was the beginning of my work being part of art fairs and being put up for display.

How is it being a woman in the art world?
I have the feeling that as a woman, you get judged more by what you are and how you look. It’s unfortunate, but if you’re discriminated as a woman, it’s the same thing as being judged upon the color of your skin. It’s all about the first look, isn’t it? And it happens all the time so maybe that’s why I keep continuing to perform, because maybe one day I can show that anything is possible. Also for women. I struggled quite a lot in my life and I have the feeling that if someone had shown me another way to let myself free, it probably would’ve been easier. So if I can be that person for someone, it would be great. Whatever you do or say, it always affects people.

www.ayakamay.com

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 18.

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Bubi Canal

door Fleur Pierets | mrt 27, 2016 | Conceptual Art

Bubi Canal

Text JF. Pierets Artwork Bubi Canal

Surrealism meets objet trouvé, meets performance art and photography. The art of Bubi Canal includes many disciplines, yet its common thread is the ability to make you happy. His work is positive, colorful and carries you along into this magical world filled with vivid creatures in geometric shapes and powerful imagery. Here is a glimpse into the disarming universe of Bubi Canal.

You’re originally from Spain, but moved to New York?
I was born in Santander, Spain, and met my husband Paul—who is American—in 2010 when I was living in Madrid. I ended up moving to New York in 2011. I can’t say it’s been easy to start over. I didn’t know where to find a photo studio and didn’t have any friends. But, New York is an inspiring place to live as an artist. People are very open and it’s a comfortable place to share your work.

Your work hardly has any reference to current hypes or trends.
My work represents a fantasy world, a universe where magic happens and where the sun always shines. It’s about what I feel and love, so you could say it’s a projection of my emotions. I’m an optimist and want that to be reflected in my work. My work changes as I evolve. It reflects the changes that happen in my life, like my interest in new technologies. I love applying their capabilities into my work.

You work with the people and objects that surround you.
My ideas are simple, and I find the most practical way to execute them within my means. I use myself or my friends as models, I shoot mostly in my neighborhood and my sculptures are made of plastic toys and found items. My work is an extension of my life. I can be inspired by a person, location or garment, for example. I’m always checking second hand shops for pieces I can use.

What inspires you?
Being open to intuition, ideas for my work come quite easily to me. I wait and see what comes up. I feel a connection to Japanese culture; I used to watch a lot of Japanese TV shows while growing up in Spain. I’m also a huge fan of Michael Jackson—his work inspires me tremendously.

‘I enjoy myself and see where it goes from there.’

What’s your work method?
I don’t have an image in mind at the beginning. I start working with a blank slate, so the end result is usually surprising to me. I enjoy myself and see where it goes from there. At times, I’ll start working on something and don’t even know what shape it will take. The end result could be an object in itself, or become a prop for a photo. Sometimes the idea turns out to be about movement, and then I’ll take it into the realm of video.

You must have a lot of fun.
I do. I look for the easiest way to create my work, so the process remains enjoyable while being effective.

How did your first solo show in New York come to be?
My work was featured as part of a group show titled Psychopomp, which was curated by Alberto Cortés and showed at the Munch Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Gallerist Lillan Munch, the owner of the venue, asked if I’d be interested in doing a solo show. That led to Special Moment, my first solo show in New York. I was looking forward to people’s reactions, which were positive. I’m currently working on a new exhibition for the Digitaliseum gallery in Malmo, Sweden, as well as a publication about my work, with text by Jorge Clar, for Pupa Press.

What’s your biggest dream?
To inspire in the same way I’ve been inspired by the work of others. Ideally, my creations could be a catalyst for positivity.

www.bubicanal.com

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 17.

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Tareq Sayid de Montfort

door Fleur Pierets | jun 25, 2014 | Conceptual Art

Tareq Sayid de Montfort

Text JF. Pierets Photos Tareq Sayid de Montfort

First things first: can the Islamic world be called avant-garde?
Like all the monotheistic religions, at its birth, Islam was an avant-garde movement, in this instance of medieval Arabia. During its Golden Age, the Islamic world was avant-garde in comparison to Europe and also in the arts during the brief cultural revolution of the 19th century called Al–Nahda. Now it is very backward, the present forms of Islam are not avant-garde. My work and personal beliefs are, but you asked about the Islamic ‘world’. Saudi Arabia is discreetly leading the way in science and research, it is the avant-garde in science today. So yes, there are examples of the Islamic world leading the forefront of innovation and development.

The main theme in your work is beauty. Do you consider yourself to be an artist or rather an aesthete?
There is no difference between my state of being as a human, an artist, ascetic, aesthete or devotee of beauty. I simply seek to be. ‘Kun’, meaning ‘to be’, is a mystic Islamic state of being. I aspire to be a contemporary Muhsin. A Muhsin is the highest calling in life in conventional Islam and can be explained as ‘one who is in constant pursuit and adoration of perfection and beauty’. So if anything, I am a contemporary Muhsin.

You once said that beauty has been damaged by artists and intellectuals and that you want to revive it. Can you elaborate?
Beauty today has been reduced to a faded image. When the modern avant-garde movement, Dada and others destroyed beauty, or rather attempted to reshape it, they consequently annexed a complex layering of many forms of beauty. Beauty has a noble lineage, it originates with siblings truth, kindness and goodness and divinity itself. To understand this, I think one needs to turn to Plato’s hierarchy of forms and the ideas of the good and the beautiful, or an easier read like Elaine Scarry’s ‘On Beauty and Being Just’. Horribly simplified: at the lowest level of the hierarchy are forms of material beauty. Higher in the hierarchy we find forms of ideas. And at the top of the ideas is that which is divine. Here lie compassion, kindness, and empathy. Beauty is also a metaphoric emblem for justice, a powerful utilitarian gift to humanity to benefit the pursuit of happiness. I could go on.My revivalist aspirations regard the Arab lands and Islam. Islam, in purer, mystic origin is an ideology seeking an ideal state of being. With a doctrine of the pursuit of beauty, mostly forgotten by current Islam, you can define it as Romantic. It is academically accepted that the Romantic poets took much influence from the Levant. The Romantic revolution of the 18th and 19th century affected the arts but also infiltrated politics. Parallels exist between socio-economic issues of the West at that time and the Arab-Islamic world now. Ideals and politics of romanticism as well as the mythos of the Cult of Beauty movements have acute abilities to address various predicaments in the Middle East today. With tradition and history still accessible in the Middle East there is still time to salvage wisdom. A wisdom with the potential to bring into existence Kun, an improved existence which we all desire. Romanticism is seen as irrational and unrealistic from a Western perspective. An Islamic pursuit is to realise a reflection of paradise on earth and a Sufi once said that ‘Rationality destroys this world and the next’. In the Arab, Islamic world romanticism is a reality. The mystic path offers a way to explain all the things that academics and intellectuals have tried for centuries to unravel but couldn’t capture. The Romantic revolution took the moon as its emblem in challenge of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason represented by the sun. The moon offered the knowledge of mysticism, poetry and metaphysics. This mystic element was Mohammed’s experience of Islam, how it is meant to be experienced.In terms of theoretical narrative, beauty is a platform for unity between dualities in opposition. A meeting of the self and the other. The philosophy of beauty I am developing owes much to Platonic and Sufi thoughts. Sufism is derived from Plato; Sufism and Platonism are siblings from a heritage of Islamic scholars whose rediscovery of classic knowledge lead to the western Renaissance. That harmony, that kind of inspiring relationship between such opposing cultures, the irony that we owe so much to each other and have an intimate relationship that is centuries old: that is a splinter of the definition of a higher form of beauty.

I believe your work is a revolution against our rational society?
Revolution is a word you may use. My idea of revolution does not correspond to how revolutions have played out thus far, with those at the top falling down and those previously at the bottom going up to create something akin to what was just removed. I believe in revolution in accordance to the doctrine of beauty, which starts with the self. A romantic revolution.

Furthermore, rationality has its rightful place. Balance is needed; I don’t desire everyone to live according to what I or anyone else claims to be ‘the way’. If my work is a revolution then certainly not one against your rational society. I will only ever be ‘against’ anything if boundaries are put in place. The rational and irrational need each other, just like the East and West have always been in a passionate affair: we just need to realize it. Just like the self and the other need to achieve an affinity. One must understand, or at least accept or respect the possibility that one’s self may actually be irrational. That the other person, who is considered to be irrational, may be the rational one.

‘I don’t think there is one absolute truth or comprehension to gender. It is fluid, an ethereal evanescence that defies understanding and can only be lived. That can only be.’

What is your philosophy on the concept of gender?
It is in constant change with society, with ideals, with culture. I believe our normative, general and conservative understanding of gender is basicly unsophisticated and incomplete. I don’t think there is one absolute truth or comprehension to gender. It is fluid, an ethereal evanescence that defies understanding and can only be lived. That can only be.

Can you talk about the work that you are showing at the GenderBlender exhibition?
The works are from the collection called ‘Wajahat al–Rajul: The Grace of Men’, displaying the Arab or Eastern male reposing with an elegance, grace and adornment not usually associated with masculinity of Arab males. It confronts Western and Arab, Muslim perspectives of imposed male/masculine stereotypes, hetero-norm social expectations and cultural ideals. The inquiry and its ‘field work’ I engage in originated from the idea that the gender identity of Prophet Mohammed is conventionally regarded as the ‘poster boy’ or perfect ideal of a Muslim and also of Arab, Muslim maleness. I have had an intimate relationship with Mohammed throughout my life, including ten years of researching him as a man: how he was and why he was the way he was, seeking the psychological and social discourse rather than fables to exult over and myths to preach about.Attributed quotes and teachings, the earliest and most reliable Islamic accounts and the Quran, forged together with insights from anthropological, social, economic, cultural and political contexts, formed an intricate sequence of time, events and persons. It introduced me to someone who, in most reports in Western media, is only known from the accounts of bearded men uneasy with modernity or through odious cries of extremists, creating an identity that most people in the West believe to be true while it is unfair and obscene to extremity.

You adhere to the Japanese idea of Wabi Sabi. How does that reflect on your work?
Conservative societies have a reputation of expecting how one should be: the perfect citizen, the perfect believer. Wabi Sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centred on the acceptance of imperfection. Melancholy and other such pains, physical and beyond, go hand in hand with the ecstasy and bliss that are an integral part of my work. Many people feel diminished, unworthy and imperfect on account of physical or emotional scars, psychological trauma, mental issues, etc. Such things that have been considered to be imperfect require a revision of understanding. The idea is to elevate them from a state of imperfection, to an imperfection that has an alternative use, to being beautiful. Basically, this establishes fairness.Just like my work both contexts, narrative and aesthetics, seek mutual acceptance between Islam and the West, between the Arabs and Islam, between the Arabs and the West and of course Israel. Hopefully this acceptance will evolve in reality one day, but until then at least it can exist symbolically, politically and romantically through art.

You grew up being gay and Muslim. What was it like?
Being gay and Muslim didn’t affect me at all, my beliefs and sexuality do not conflict. Growing up in a Muslim country was a bit difficult but then again, also quite exciting.

I understand gay identity isn’t the same in Arab countries as in the West. Can you tell me about this?
That is a very complex, long discussion. I like the article available on the subject that is called ‘Re–Orientating Desire: The Gay International and The Arab World’. There are different rules in the ‘gay’ world. Very strict codes on who is active and passive, which I challenged completely. As a slim boy with feminine sensibility the ‘rule’ was that I would be passive. I challenged this as I am active. In the West there is the lingering notion that the feminine is always passive; that idea is quite militant in Arab culture. Also, the active man is not necessarily considered gay; he is just fucking because that is what men do. Gay became an identity in Britain after the Oscar Wilde trials. Before that, it was just something you did as an act. There are many remains of this perception in the Arab world, which has a history of pederasty. It is different in regard to the idea of gay as an identity. Intimacy between persons of the same sex was a central aspect of Arabic culture but it has warped into something that is still undecided because of this identity issue. That is aggravated by cultures where queerness is still considered wrong.

Future plans?
I am currently in the process of writing proposals and bringing together ideas for an exhibition in London that would use objects from my family’s Islamic Collection in Kuwait, hopefully with some private ones in London. I want to show them along with contemporary art, side by side with object d’art artefacts and antiquities. It will be called Black Cube. The word ‘cube’ comes from Kaaba, the holiest site in Islam where Muslims face when they pray, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

This article is featured in Et Alors? Magazine 10.

Read the complete issue here.

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Silvia B.

door Fleur Pierets | jun 25, 2014 | Conceptual Art

Silvia B.

Text JF. Pierets Photos & artwork Silvia B.

She affectionately calls them ‘my boys’, when she talks about her statues. A black and a white series of puppets that almost seem to come alive and that are created with a level of perfection that can only be understood as love. Some of them, with names like Thinker, Ira Jr., Lord Rangda or Mors, are part of the series ‘Les plus Beaux’, the most beautiful of them all. And that is what they are, strangely hovering between man and animal, transcending standard notions of beauty. In conversation with a most versatile and intriguing artist, Silvia B.

All your statues are hybrids, age- and genderless yet existing in some perfect illusion. Highly attractive at first glance but disturbing at a closer look.
I like to make my sculptures as beautiful as possible and I love them to be fluid. They are based on signs of our time. Stereotypes taken to the max. Not only regarding androgyny but also of genetic manipulation, cosmetic surgery. In this day and age you can become whomever you want to be or rather: whomever you have to be in order to fit in.I try to make my sculptures as beautiful as I can, just to arouse the viewers’ sense of duality. Attract them with craftsmanship but unsettle them on second look. Magnetism versus rejection. Not to mention doubt. I like the audience to be in doubt before they judge: that it’s not possible for them to instantly take a stand. For me it is important that you have to think about whether these creatures are beautiful or not and subsequently whether they are good or bad. Doubt is the basis of all thought and I like to advance that as a given. It is my vision on beauty; a kind of beauty that isn’t appreciated most of the time because there is always a dark side to it. Like film stills: you never know what is going to happen next.

Your representations challenge not only our conceptions of normality in regard to beauty but also in respect of human behaviour.
I have always been interested in human behaviour. We are still so very instinctive, aren’t we? Everything we do is based on our desires and our fears. When you see someone on the street who looks a bit different you instantly decide, within three seconds, whether you are going to make eye contact or not. Is the other person a winner or a loser? Do I want to connect or could that be dangerous? We still behave like herd animals and at the same time we think of ourselves as being some kind of super-beings.

Super-beings with the possibility to explore genetic manipulation, cosmetic surgery, artificial intelligence. Is that why you made ‘Almost Perfect’?
This girl was sitting in my atelier for quite a long time. I found her while strolling around a flea marked. She was so weird: an old doll, an anorexic avant la lettre. I knew there was a statue inside of her but I wasn’t quite sure where she was going. She was my skinny teenager who didn’t know whether to fall in love with boys or with girls. I gave her all the opportunities an era of the makeable human has to offer; the endless growing possibilities of plastic surgery. Her skin is stitched together and I gave her fashionably oversized lips. She is self-conscious of her pubescent breasts and tiny penis. I offered her a choice to grow into whomever she wanted to be.

And all of a sudden everything went black.
Once again I was drifting on the tide of time. Business was going well but all of a sudden the crisis kicked in. People bought less art; they were more careful with their money and I had to jump into a new future without a parachute. That was quite confronting. My white series exists very much in the ‘here and now’. Little boys, decadent and aggressive yet charming and confident regarding their place in time.The black series, starting with ‘Les Bêtes Noires’, is different: more introvert, more me maybe. Most of them have their eyes closed. Not only to give the viewer the freedom to stare but also to express an aloofness that borders denial. I wanted to give them the possibility to shut out the rest of the world. To be self-assured and in no need of approval.

You seem to have a huge fascination for the circus.
My father always told me that they found me at the queue of a Russian parade. You are so weird, he said, you can’t be our child. So I kept on hoping the Tsar and Tsarina would come to get me and take me far away from these ordinary people. So who knows: maybe that is where this interest came from? I love the comical yet theatrical effect of the circus. Don’t you think it is strange that we find it funny when people behave like animals and vice versa? We buy tickets and laugh at people who look displaced. And isn’t it weird that we decorate our homes and ourselves with – literally – someone else’s feathers. It is quite morbid to take pleasure in the remains of dead animals. We think that we are some kind of superhuman beings, that everything is there because of us. We use all species except our own – well, exceptions left aside.

‘The gloves are ‘marked’ with what some people might call imperfections: freckles, scars, hairy moles or even a mutant-like extra thumb. Are they dissonances or signs of beauty?’

Children that are covered head-to-toe in hair are a constant factor in your work.
Since time immemorial, extremely hairy people have been exhibited in traveling circuses so this inevitably lead to ‘Le Cirque’. A melancholic series of both children in fur and animals behaving like people. The atmosphere of those fancy fairs and the dubiously voluntary aspect of those shows made me choose to create them all in black. Fit for an environment where certain activities might not be suited to be exposed in broad daylight. The fact that everything is black forces you to concentrate on what you see, which strengthens the aspect of voyeurism.

You are not only displaying your work, but people can actually wear it. Your Skinover elbow length gloves offer the possibility to brave the day in someone else’s skin.
When I started to create ‘Almost Perfect’, I first made her hands and I was trying them on myself, feeling the touch of the lambskin leather. Afterwards I couldn’t forget the sensation of living in someone else’s skin, as if I were actually wearing her. So that is where it all started. And since I like to question our current concept of aesthetics, I involved someone else’s tattoos, someone else’s birth marks, scars: to explore the edge between what is beautiful and what is not. The gloves are ‘marked’ with what some people might call imperfections: freckles, scars, hairy moles or even a mutant-like extra thumb. Are they dissonances or signs of beauty? Is everything that deviates from the norm a priori bad, strange? A brown spot on the face of a young woman is called a beauty mark; on the face of an old lady it is considered a shrew’s wart. Understanding this makes mainstream thoughts regarding beauty very relative.

Your work is closely related to fashion.
I love fashion because it is the only art form able to react very quickly on what is happening in the world. Design, art and architecture for example, are much slower in their reflection. Fashion shows the way we are feeling in regard to politics or social issues. I was 18 years old when punk made its entrance and at the time, there weren’t any punk clothes or jewellery available here in The Netherlands; I had to make everything myself. I found them to be very creative and productive times. The ideas of no tomorrow, no future, party every day and wear your most beautiful clothes, were very inspiring. Since there was no future you had to do everything Now: tomorrow might be too late. In a way it is what I am still doing. Customizing things, bringing all those dolls to my atelier to check if there are statues hidden inside. I still play with dolls, only now I get paid to do so.

Inspiration is lifestyle?
Yes. Magazines, movies, human behaviour, how we succeed in society: all very inspirational but quite complicated. Life itself is quite complicated so I like it if certain things stay the same. For example, 20 years ago I chose to have this hairdo and I am not going to change it anymore. I like to wear black, it feels comfortable, I am not going to change it anymore. If I have to make decisions about everything, I wouldn’t be able to work so I make it simple. I choose to keep it simple.

Leaves me nothing but to ask about your future plans. We have seen white, we have seen black. What else can we expect from a very versatile artist who wants to keep life simple?
The future looks very exciting! I am heading towards a solo exhibition and I don’t have a clue what I am going to show. I want to make new work; start all over again. Long live the internet where I can check images from all over the world without leaving the comfort of my atelier. I’ll keep you posted!

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