VR Installation
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a body.” (Legacy Russell)
Bodies, especially those of marginalized identities, have been exposed to various
modes of violence, oppression and control throughout human history. In order to resist this hostile infrastructure and rediscover the essence of our bodies as complex assemblages of virtualities and
potentialities, we propose the practice of bodybuilding.
Bridging diverse theoretical underpinnings with an artistic practice, the presented interactive virtual reality installation „A psalm for the body-built“ (by Berkay Soykan and Jonny-Bix Bongers, collaborators Janne Nora Kummer and Wro Wrzesińska) is a first attempt at creating the critical space for bodybuilding which
investigates what it means to have, and to become, a body in a technologically mediated environment. Inspired by readings in cyberfeminism, queer theory,
philosophy and game studies, these operations function as interventions into the subject’s own bodily perception and encourage them to explore their bodies’ (im)materiality, virtual manifestations, potentialities and becomings.
Ars Electronica, 2022
UdK, 2022
