BODYreFORMation

The subject of this practical research involves two personal enquiries around scenography and the body: the performative role of scenographic elements combined with an investigation on the limits of human morphology. Aiming to blur the borders between scenography and the body, I experimented with the idea of a performing costume. My theoretical research on body modification in history and cross-culturally mainly focuses on the human figure as an object of visual interest, while my practical work explores the sculptural possibilities and the limits of the body’s morphology, at the point where it can become ‘monstrous’. I experiment with the diversity of these figures and the transformation that the body is subjected to, in order to fit into the ‘beauty’ standards that different cultures have established in a specific time frame. This project suggests a shift from the conventional role of the costume as a ‘decorative’ element on a performer’s body to a costume that is itself performative and moves to a state where scenography can perform without the body.