Control it, Delete it

Benjamin Francis loosely addresses the dissolving boundaries between the body and the object, as well as questions notions of authenticity, originality and value Within the performance members of the audience are invited to enter an anatomical theatre setting and lay on an autopsy table. On these tables they will be impersonating «dirty’artworks in need to be cleansed and deconstructed Herein the artist is interested in how a participant’s role can be shifted from active to silent, with the help of a performative component constituted by the act of (foot) washing.

While performing as art sculptures, the performers will present texts based on lyrics of funeral hymns. The lyrics are constructed through errors occurring in mistranslations to English and through disparities between English and non-English language hymns. Francis found this process of lyric-making significant as it questions meaning-making and authenticity. What does it mean for something to be original? When we think of mourning processes and discussions of death, we often insist on stressing the departed’s individuality, what makes them special, one of a kind. For Control it, delete it, Francis juxtaposes on the autopsy table the perception of authenticity encountered in mourning with the idea of art as a (non) object of originality.

By Benjamin Francis.