SKIN FRICTION consists of two opposing video-screens which were grown from a symbiotic culture of bacteria (PAPUR by biologist and artist Johan Geysen). The bacteria produce a film of cellulose to protect themselves from the outside world. By employing the alluring, sensory quality of this skin-like fabric the artists repurpose it as a medium of intersubjective connection. Filmed with a microscope-camera, the images that are projected onto the screens were taken of the artist Marius Packbier’s skin. The two screens are placed in close proximity to each other, inviting the spectator to walk in between them and thus to enter the intimate space of the artist.

The fragile and seductive materiality of the two skins (the screen and the image) rubbing against each other, appeal to the sense of (visual) touch of the spectator, whilst emphasizing the inseparability of visual and haptic perception.

Media: Bacterial cellulose (PAPUR by Johan Geysen), Video

 

Exhibitions:
13/10/2019 – 03/11/2019 Bogardenkapel, Brugge (BE)