CONCEPT
The work resumes in scale my project Ombelicae (see portfolio for evamples): during the fair, in the context of the liquid rooms I will create a convivial and interactive chalcographic room where I will propose to the public to lie down and allow me to take a cast of their navel. The drying time of the plaster (about 20 minutes) makes it essential to create a welcoming environment and a space for dialogue between the public and the artist. The final work will be a constellation of plaster casts installed using magnets on a vertical white wall.
The navel is a knot on the border, the skin where the skin ends; it is the limit between the inside, the outside and the surface. The visual fulcrum, the acme suspended between the head and genitals becomes a symbolic center, hermaphrodite, carnal and spiritual at the same time. The work proposes a reflection on the theme of intimacy and conviviality in a historical period that tends to fragmentation. The sphere of intimacy and the search for self-awareness are juxtaposed with the need for exchange and sociality.
The trace of the umbilical cord is the sign of the connection with the mother, the source of nourishment, the first channel of interaction and therefore the child’s first real contact with the other.
Showing the belly in the animal kingdom is a sign of surrender and submission, but it also implies a form of trust. The gesture requested in this case to the public is an act of exposure and liberation, but also an invitation to self-explore and self-enquiry .