Unlike gemstones or precious metals that must be mined from the earth, pearls are grown by live oysters far below the surface of the sea. Gemstones must be cut and polished to bring out their beauty. But pearls don´t.
A natural pearl begins its life as a foreign object, such as a parasite or piece of shell that accidentally lodges itself in an oyster’s soft inner body where it cannot be expelled. To ease this irritant, the oyster’s body takes defensive action and
secretes a smooth, hard crystalline substance around the irritant and the result, ultimately, is the lovely and lustrous gem called a pearl.
The work around the performance Body On could be easily compared to the birth of a pearl. We started with the research half a year before the premiere in 2013, put one layer on top of another and then finally by performing it over and over again, the material became deeper and got its shape.
After showing the performance Body On at the ITS Festival, the biggest european student festival in Amsterdam, the piece got nominated for two prizes from which it won the ITS Parade Parel – the so called Parade Pearl.
I am very happy for that prize because it shows a general appreciation to body and performance art and to a work, which I think is necessary for a contemporary society to be witnessed, including entertainment and poetry, beauty and uglyness.
Special thanks to all the people who believed in us who were great support:
To Progkunstfestivalen Oslo, Fraslab Festival Frascati, DISKURS´13, Free.Space.Festival, the Slapstickboys, MIME Department – by name Jan Taks and Aitana Cordero Vico, Loes van der Pligt, Sjoukje Dijkstra, Anna Bentivegna – who shot our first trailer, Guido van den Hof – our brilliant technical leader, Rens Spanjaard – who shot the greatest pictures that I constantly mess up in Photoshop.
