Body Holes as Little Art Galleries

by Chris Nelson

Body Holes — a project by Paul Barsch and Tilman Hornig of the art duo New Scenario for the Berlin Biennale — aims to personalize and embody the proverbial white cube of a gallery. “If the body were a museum,” they say, “there would be seven galleries.”

They’re referring, of course, to the body’s seven orifices: mouth, nose, ears, navel, plus the much-maligned nether three. For the project, over 40 such holes have been stuffed and/or decorated with miniature artworks by emerging names, e.g. Yves Scherer, Bruno Zhu, Michele Gabriele, Carson Fisk-Vittori.

Each artist was designated a body part as his or her exhibition space and the nature of the work was up to them — as long as it could fit in the given hole, thus liberating the body from cultural and sexual objectification.

Adam Cruces