The Night Time is My Time: A Body without Organs

The Cornerhouse in Manchester is currently showing 'How to build a Body without Organs' a collaborative exhibition curated by Alessandro Bucci, featuring work by Hernán Chavar, Marco Rea, Fernanda Veron, Nicol Vizioli and Wallenburg. And this is their manifesto:

'What’s in a body? Which features make the body what is it? We might say organs and bones, but French philosophers Deleuze & Guattari reject this answer. Their theory Body Without Organs suggests that the body isn't merely about the parts that make it work, but rather is the fulfillment of potential to create something whole. In this selection of works, the artists have reflected upon the process of clothing the body, emphasising the role of dress in getting us closer to our whole 'self'. Here, dress is no longer an attribute of the body, as the two create a singular identity which cannot be separated.'

The Body without Organs is an extract from 'a thousand plateus' a paper written by Deleuze and Guattari in 1947 and it wasn't an easy read for me who prefers fantasy fiction over deep philosophical concepts. But I persevered and was delighted by what I discovered and understood, here's what I took from it.

After speaking to my more analytic better half on the subject we came to the following conclusion, the Body without Organs is the ideal, it's what we strive to create, it's how we build ourselves, yet we can never actually acheive it. It's a result of all you put into it, whether that be misery or ecstasy. The philosophers question why when we can fill ourselves with pure happiness do we choose the opposite, pain. But to those who choose it, it brings them satisfaction, and they feel incompatible and uneasy around elation and optimism. What method we use to construct ourselves with, is what we seek to build ourselves in the future, and for some people, pain brings pleasure. Which if you don't 'get it' explains the ever elusive masochist.

To further explain this concept I came up an analogy. We each have our own internal puzzle pieces and we live each day collecting more, desiring to create the full image of oneself, the pieces are the Organs and the finished picture is the Body without. What puzzle pieces you start with and how you obtain them influence the rest, as with a puzzle, they have to match up, making it impossible to build your puzzle without some sort of connection.

Alessandro Bucci took this concept and applied it to the clothes we wear, signifying them as an extension of ourselves. So like everything we choose to build, fashion and clothing can be one of them. Whether the entwining threads that make you are a beautiful flowing silk or an itchy jumper that has a few holes in. It's just one more way to extend and express yourself. In the exhibition the photographer Nicol Vizioli stood out for me the most, the subjects in his images look like they are feeling the clothing around them, as seen below hugging it close in the cold or looking broken without any at all.