Ivana Bašić’s work takes its title from a quote by the writer Vladimir Nabokov, describing the fragility of the evanescent human body. “The cranium,” the author writes, “is a space-traveler’s helmet. Stay inside or you perish.” Suspended from the ceiling at AB6 is a backward leaning humanoid torso without a head and whose lower legs and feet have been replaced by prosthetic elongations. The grey and fleshly colors of the wax figure are reminiscent of decaying human anatomy, while the cylindrical glass fragments and metal rods in lieu of shins and feet simultaneously allude to post-human enhancements. Dissolving boundaries of the body, challenging its integrity, and highlighting the insufficiencies of the “real” to account for technological advancements, Bašić’s installation evokes both repulsion and beauty, both bodily finitude and technological boundlessness.

#posthuman #body #technology #dissolving #prosthetic #decay

photos: Nysos Vasilopoulos, 6th Athens Biennale 2018 ANTI