The “natural body,” though ubiquitous in advertising slogans and images, seems to be the major ideological issue at the dawn of the second millennium. How, indeed, can we define the “natural side” of a Western individual? Is it their biological state, as redefined by genetic research, new surgical technologies, or genetically modified foods? Or is it their personal history, which has shaped certain parts of their body into expressive and mnemonic forms of joy and suffering? Its cultural history, which is interwoven with diverse and contradictory rituals (weight training—relaxation, good food—weight-loss diets, asceticism—tribal celebrations)?
“Right on the Body: From Skin to Clothing” is less an exhibition about the relationship between art and fashion than an invitation to explore the biological, social, and cultural dimensions of the body. Contemporary artists use skin and clothing as mediums and surfaces for expressing individual voices, collective narratives, and political practices of the body. It is therefore clear that the skin and clothing serve as effective “pretexts” for analyzing the place of the contemporary subject within different environments.
Turn the body inside out like a glove to reveal an interior that has less to do with objective anatomy than with a carnal-mental space within, one that is both unsettling and sensual (Maeve Dupuis, Nicola).
To construct a surface of the body where the boundaries between skin and clothing dissolve, thereby initiating a subtle dialectic between skeleton—armor, shell—molt (Rui Chafes), garment—prosthesis, expression—impression (Natacha Lesueur).
Use this data from within and on the surface of the body to explore the impulse toward the other through the lens of the solitude that precedes contact (Mickaël Phelippeau) and the bond that is formed (Micha Deridder).
Reinterpreting the social functions of the skin and clothing to offer a critical analysis of cultural identities (Adel Abdessemed) or sexual identities (Maria Hahnenkamp)—in short, of what constitutes Western ideologies of the body (Philippe Meste).