I have developed since 2014 four performances in body mapping that deal with medical subjects with a poetic, sociological and historical point of view.
The First Performance, Another Vision is about the gaze and its subjectivity, as well as the history of color perception. 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 and its cancer. Finally Blood Tales takes us into a journey into blood symbolisme.
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 concentrates in its first part on respiration and lungs, than reflects on the history and sociology of cancer.
The rear screen is 30m wide by 5m high. A 8,5m wide version is also available.
Timing: 31 minutes – 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 Fleurs 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 – 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
Another Vision
“By playing on the hypnotic fascination of the image, Thomas Israel teaches us about the history of ophthalmology, the physiology and philiosophy of visual perception as well as the symbolism linked to the eye. Inspired by the anthropomorphic landscapes that punctuate the history of art, as well as by kinetic art, Another Vision mixes universal and personal history, for the pleasure of the senses and of the brain. »
20 minutes – First presentation in April 2022 @ Ophthalmology Congress in Sao Paulo, in french with Portugues subtitles,on a 30m wide LED Panel.
Music: Gauthier Keyaerts – Production et artistic collaboration: Kika Nicolela – Translation: Natacha Marzliak & Renato Rezende – Interactivity Technical: Gustavao Milward
Blood Tales
Looking for a unique opening event for your medical congress? Blood Tales combines anthropological, historical, and medical insights about blood in an innovative and emotionally powerful manner. This show uses the unique interactive body mapping technique, providing both aesthetic experience and moving storytelling.
Timing: 18, 15 or 10 minutes – Voice-over : French or English – subtitles: English – Portugais – Musique Gauthier Keyaerts & Thierry Gauthier – Production: In Progress 2023
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