Creator:

Bruno Mendonça

Performer:

Bruno Mendonça

Martin Miguel

Stefanie Sommerfeld

Theoretical background:

Skin under lead
Dig with your tongue, scouring tool, abrasive on the edges
Open up the internal laugh, position it on the soles
Of the feet, walk on it, in halting ritual, success
Guaranteed. Myth of the abode by convulsive jerks,
Jolt of the shoulders, raising the Latin grammar
Like an internalized valve, terrorized by the
Trials. Hammers, pliers to tighten the skin, the canvas over our
Skeletons of burnt posts, interlocked like the baths
In a translation in the ablative and associated ulnas.
Conjugate the dermis and the lifeless.
Associate the void and the fold.
Knead the head and the lead.
Finely grind the color for the lover.
Swallow the line and spit it in the wine.
Slowly, softly chew the jagged words
With the steel tongue, cannibalism of the text.
Reduce breath to groan in Chinese tea, shavings
Under skins, Philippe emerges, recovers his place in the
Phase of electromagnetic nights.
The André of Artists has a new title: The great lozenge.
The internal frictions of the schools have ceased
Heckling us: the collections, the collectives, the collations
Become our labyrinths of absinthe, with acidic taste,
The clothes have freed the man, the rancid bait goes down hard,
The stomach manufactures our literature, reading takes place
At the end of our fingers, the yawn lies to the dark, the board has
Ceased to exist, it has become the plaque of tastes and
Hors d’œuvres, stomped, chomped, chewed, the vomit
Of our cultures. The mouth filtering the air, the blackened words
Leaving the steelworks, are projected in the esophagus in
Folds, in packets, in formatted mouthfuls, the tongue
Only serving to mess up the left and the
Right, anarchy on our folded brains, the gray
Matter making a D, with each habit stinking of action.
Yield, phloem, volumen, ‘expiraction,’ becoming vital
The decomposition becoming the primera materia of writing
That by fluidifying invades the page, the plaque, the rage, the
Cage, where the headings and leadings as in DNA
Are conjugated in a random voyage of the interior.

Bruno Mendonça

Occurence:

Places:

Galerie Depardieu

Starting date:

2010

1:30 heure

Topology:

gallery

Background:

For the exhibit Arborisations by Bruno Mendonça at the Galerie Depardieu

Adress:

64, boulevard Risso

Nice

France

vidéo de la performance

Dena Sardet

Synopsis / Description:

Performances:

Skin under lead

vidéo de la performance

Axel Palavi

Synopsis / Description:

vidéo de la performance

Performances:

Skin under lead

Objets:

la "peau de plomb" en deux parties après usage

Technique description référence:

la "peau de plomb" en deux parties après usage

Documents:

carton d'invitation

Type:

Imprimé

Technique description référence:

carton d'invitation

MENDON

Description:

Martin Miguel and Stefanie Sommerfeld helped Bruno Mendonça to unfold and prepare a sheet of lead, brushed beforehand. Using metal shears, they cut out two pieces the size of the artist’s body, from foot to neck. The two pieces were hammered and joined on his body while lying down, literally fitting him into a suit of lead. Once it was assembled, the two assistants stood Bruno Mendonça up, unbalanced and heavy in this 80 kg suit in addition to his own body weight.

The notions of balance, contact, and copy (through the suit) are preoccupations sprinkled through the artist’s practice, already present in his experiments with dance-contact-improvisation.

Once he is stood up, supported by his assistants and by Christian Depardieu, Bruno Mendonça read, with his arm outstretched, constrained by his outfit, a text questioning all of the notions raised. Meanwhile, Martin Miguel used his finger to smear the front of the artist’s suit with white paint.

The action was performed to music by the German group Müller.