We all bleed the s(h)ame

CORPOFESTO #2 WE ALL BLEED THE S(H)AME

by Fenia Kotsopoulou

[CORPOFESTO #2] “WE ALL BLEED THE S(H)AME” by Fenia Kotsopoulou blueprints and single channel video Lincoln 2018 *special thanks to Daz Disley for his support during the process

CORPOFESTO

A CORPOFESTO is a visual response that puts the Body (from Latin [corps] “body”) at the centre of the action as a message, and at the same time as messenger.

We all have a Body, a material map inscribed of our identities, where we return in order to re-examine, re-define, re-shape, and understand not only our existence but also our role(s) in society as active citizens.

The first CORPOFESTO, entitled “MY BODY IS” (2017) is a 1-minute video-performance based on the realisation that MY BODY IS MY HOME / N0 MAN’S TERRITORY / WHERE MY POWER RESIDES / SHELTER OF EMOTIONS / TESTIMONY / MAP OF TIME / MY TOOL OF EXPRESSION / WHERE PLEASURE EXISTS / WHERE TRUTH IS MANIFESTED / MY BODY IS ONLY MINE. For the occasion of Kaffee Kuchen Action Art III - Holding Space 1st International Performance Art Festival Weimar, the second CORPOFESTO has been emerged.

CORPOFESTO #2 “WE ALL BLEED THE S(H)AME� is a body of work focused on the notion of embodied shame and acts which externalise and neutralise it through rituals of removal.

The work is materialised through performance for camera and the creation of a series of prints, manipulated through manual intervention.

A) “WE ALL BLEED THE S(H)AME” (2018) 20 one-off cyanotypes Dimensions: 21cm x 30cm *added material to 13 cyanotypes: blood

20 one-off prints made using the cyanotype photographic process, creating a continuous tone image of rich Prussian Blue.

In comparison to other chemical processes, making cyanotypes is very “forgiving�. Small errors such as over-exposure, or imperfectly-mixed chemicals, can lead to complete failure in other processes, but with cyanotype, there is leeway to correct such errors through sensitive handling.

These flaws can be washed, can be bleached and can be toned, and in the creation of these particular prints, domestic items have been used, such as laundry additives and painkillers, to symbolically acknowledge, ameliorate, and accept what might otherwise be seen as shameful results.

The chemistry used for these images is not merely practical in terms of the making, but also symbolic of the ways that small, seemingly everyday, domestic interventions can aid in cleansing, acceptance, and ultimately freedom from our shame(s).

13 of the prints have been further manipulated and transformed. The text in the images “The Shame On You”, has been scrubbed using a steel sponge to leave a “scar” on the paper, which has then been painted with menstrual blood.

The staining ink of shame is transformed into visible scars.

Scrubbing and removal requiring strong material intervention.

Vulnerability through exposure revealing a deeper, inner strength.

And if I follow the traces I can see that you bleed the same as me.

In a material sense, our similarity is inescapably written in our blood - a fact further reflected by the repeated use and manipulation of iron in the making of these images. Iron being transformed from state to state in the chemistry of the cyanotype process. Iron in the destructive power of the steel sponge. Iron in the haemoglobin of blood. Iron simultaneously symbolic of our innermost weaknesses, the strength and transformative power we all possess, and the blood which gives us life.

B) “PURGE” (2018) single channel video | duration: 6’04’’ performance/camera/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou music: “Night Ryde” by Room of Wires

“PURGE” is another attempt at removal; an act of cleansing and reclaiming the materiality of the Body which, through history, has been manipulated, stigmatised, penalised, “othered”, oppressed, controlled, dismissed and taught to feel ashamed of its own materiality.

“Purge” is the urge to stop holding back because:

The body thinks.

The body feels.

The body remembers.

The body speaks its own truth which we are not always willing to listen to.

The body reveals our fears, and by letting these fears be revealed, we delve into the depths of our collective humanity, where we might find the core of what it means to be connected. We are bound not just by our presence, absence, preferences and interests, but on a more fundamental level, by our shames and ultimately our fears.

The seat of this work rests in the very sharing and diluting of our fears, and the juxtaposition of still and moving image aims to reinforce the message that the attempt might fail and the traces of shame remain, but the act of sharing, as simple and as difficult as it may be, can be the first step in a journey to ultimately free ourselves from that which is for the most part to the external eye : invisible.

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