Following the interest of doctors for my performative work, I have developed since 2014 four performances in body mapping that deal with medical subjects with a poetic and historical point of view.

The First Performance, Vision speaks of the gaze and its subjectivity, as well as the history of color perception.  The second, Black Cloud, confronts Hippocrates Oath and the anxieties of a surgeon through a metaphorical fable. The next two, A Fleurs de Peau and A Bout de souffle goes into the history of cancer, but also into its experience by patients and health professionals.  A Fleurs de Peau has a focus on skin and melanoma,  and A Bout de souffle on lungs.

These performances were created with a voice-over in English and French  and with subtitling in English, Portuguese or Spanish, but could be translated into other languages ​​and served as basis for new creations.

Son of physician, placing the corporeal experience and its symbolic dimension in the center of my artistic research, I like to confront science, history, anthropology and art.

A bout de souffle

  • A Bout de souffle
  • A Bout de souffle
  • A Bout de souffle
  • A Bout de souffle

This performance has be created in August 2017 in Sao Paulo, it takes the history and reflection about cancer of A Fleurs de peau (two last thirds of the performance) but concentrates in its first part on respiration and lungs.

The scenography is also different: the rear screen is 30m wide by 5m high and includes fans to create a 4D breathing sensation for the spectators. A 8,5m wide version is also available.

Timing: 31 minutes – 2017   – performer / 1 technician / 1 producer . – Voice over:English  –  Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Spanish . –  Texte – performance – voice-over – programing Thomas Israël   –  Artistic advice – production – translation Kika Nicolela   –   Original sound track    Gauthier Keyaerts, Thierry Gauthier, Andrei Machado   –   English translation    Jennifer Westlake   –   Interactive mask    Yacine Sebti   –   Medical consulting  Marc Zeicher, MD, MS, PhD – Targeted Therapies Research and Consulting Centre (TTRCC – Brussels)  –   Main Bibliography    The Emperor Of All Maladies [A Biography Of Cancer] by Siddhartha Mukherjee,  Susan Sontag – Illness as Metaphor.

A Fleur de peau

A Fleur de Peau begins with a personal and anthropological evocation of the skin, to develop in a reflection on cancer by those who are confronted with it and the health-professionals. It continues with a history of the treatments but also of cancer perception. I project not only on my body but also on a big screen behind me (8.5m wide by 5m high).

Timing: 24 minutes – 2017   – performer / 1 technician / 1 producer . – Voice over:English  –  Subtitles: French, Portuguese . –  Texte – performance – voice-over – programing Thomas Israël   –  Artistic advice – production – translation Kika Nicolela   –   Original sound track    Gauthier Keyaerts, Thierry Gauthier, Andrei Machado   –   English translation    Jennifer Westlake   –   Interactive mask    Yacine Sebti   –   Medical consulting   Camilo Moreno, MD Marc Zeicher, MD, MS, PhD – Targeted Therapies Research and Consulting Centre (TTRCC – Brussels)  –   Main Bibliography    The Emperor Of All Maladies [A Biography Of Cancer] by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Vision

By playing on the hypnotic fascinations of the image, Thomas Israel instructs us on the history and physiology of visual perception as well as on the symbolism related to the eye and colors. Inspired by the anthropomorphic landscapes that punctuate the history of art, as well as by kinetic art, Vision blends universal and personal history.

Timing: 22 minutes   –  Voice-over : French or English  –  subtitles: English – Portugais – Dutch – Spanish   –   Musique   Gauthier Keyaerts   –   Interactivité   Yacine Sebti   –   production: KN Studio (2014  Ophthalmology Congres of the Sao Paulo University ,National  Congres  of Ophthalmology of San José – Costa Rica (2015))

Black Cloud

Fratricidal fable around Hippocrates Oath and doctor vocation, where an ophthalmologist pierces the eye of his brother by trying to save him.

Timing: 22 minutes   – 2014  Ophthalmology Congres of Sao Paulo University    –   Musique: Gauthier Keyaerts   –    1 performer / 1 technician / 1 producer   –   Voice over: French  Subtitles: English, Portuguese 

The Artiste

The Brussels-based multimedia artist, Thomas Israel (1975), proposes immersive, interactive works in the form of video installations, sculptures and performances. Having begun his career in theatre, his atypical approach to digital arts revolves around the themes of the body, time and the subconscious. His work has been shown at the MoMA in New York, the Society for Arts and Technology in Montreal, the Musée des Abattoirs in Toulouse and at many festivals, exhibitions, galleries and museums around the world since 2005.His monograph “Memento Body” was just launch at la Lettre Volée, and his last performance Skinstrap (laureate of the prestigious Japan Media Art Festival 2014) is touring worlwide. He is represented by Galerie Charlot in Paris.

Body-mapping

With just a few visual elements – mostly the performers’ bodies as an interface for an interactive video projection – the performances offer the audience a fresh and touching experience. that use body mapping is a way to immerse the audience in a poetic world, approaching perception, vision and auto-fiction.  Through softwares developed specially for those works, the body mapping allows the performer to move and interact with the images, which can be projected only over his bodies. The body as a screen in order to induce an inner dive – that’s the general proposal of this technique, which is further developed in DUALSKIN to explore narrative possibilities of this new media.

More info, full video of performances,  technical details:

Kika Nicolela : production –  kikanicolela @ gmail.com

Thomas Israel: thomas @ thomasisrael.be