“Communal skin”: contemporary art and protest masks

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/23099

Keywords:

intercorporeality; masks; Mongrel; Pussy Riot; Jemima Wyman; Zach Blas

Abstract

Taking into account the idea of intercorporeality, the essay explores the use of masks – the particular attribute of many protest movements – in art projects of the Mongrel collective, the Pussy Riot, Jemima Wyman and Zach Blas, who rework them as a tool to create a collective identity that can help break down contemporary social inequalities of race, gender, class and sexual orientation. These artworks use masks to symbolically join or even ‘sew’ together protesters’ bodies, in order to create a hybrid anatomy that addresses socio-cultural differences from an alternative, non-hierarchicalizing perspective.

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Author Biography

Sara Damiani, University of Bergamo

Sara Damiani è ricercatrice in Museologia e Storia della critica artistica e del restauro (L-ART 04) presso l’Università degli studi di Bergamo. È membro della rete di ricerca internazionale sul sogno: Das nächtliche Selbst e del comitato tecnico-scientifico del progetto Promozione, in una dimensione nazionale e internazionale, della figura e dell’opera di Giacomo Manzù. Le sue principali aree di ricerca esplorano la relazione tra le arti visive, l’antropologia medica e i nuovi media. Tra le sue pubblicazioni: L’atelier dei sogni (2012); Fuori quadro (2013, con B. Grespi e E. Grazioli); La cultura delle immagini (2015, con S. Maffei e F. Lo Monaco), Arte e cultura digitale (2020).

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Published

2024-06-01

How to Cite

Damiani, Sara. 2024. “‘Communal skin’: Contemporary Art and Protest Masks”. Altre Modernità, no. 31 (June):276-92. https://doi.org/10.54103/2035-7680/23099.

Issue

No. 31 (2024): Texts on the move between Europe and the Americas

Section

Saggi Ensayos Essais Essays

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.