2024. Photo by Henry Griin
Artistic statement
I see my work as actively building bridges between communities but, first and foremost, building temporalities. Working on themes like HIV/AIDS from a personal perspective, I try to connect stories from the past, present and future, to bring forth ghosts of the AIDS pandemic to confront present medical and social realities. Through contrasting technological developments and perceived political progress to the human cost of challenges and regressions which are forced upon us, and which we are forced to come to terms with, or live on the periphery of, as individuals and fragmented communities in the present.
Medicalisation
In my work, I explore the complicated and often imbalanced connection between the evolution of life-changing treatments and the power of definition the medical world holds over its patients, especially relating to sexual identification and sexual health. The power of definition through the treatment and stigmatisation of an illness such as HIV, cancer or any other life-impacting diagnosis, and how this is affected by the systemised perceptions and categorisations of its patients. In my work, sexual health is all that matters, and each work aims to support knowledge production around sexual health, options, and conversations which need to be held. One of these topics is the difficult bond between identity construction and medicalisation.
In my work, I explore the complicated and often imbalanced connection between the evolution of life-changing treatments and the power of definition the medical world holds over its patients, especially relating to sexual identification and sexual health. The power of definition through the treatment and stigmatisation of an illness such as HIV, cancer or any other life-impacting diagnosis, and how this is affected by the systemised perceptions and categorisations of its patients. In my work, sexual health is all that matters, and each work aims to support knowledge production around sexual health, options, and conversations which need to be held. One of these topics is the difficult bond between identity construction and medicalisation.
The medical perception of homosexuals is an ongoing conversation signified by ignorance, prejudice, lack of information and stigma in countries and medical systems which define themselves as “developed” as much as anywhere else. In my work, such questions and confrontations are not only presented; I facilitate their relation to the audience’s personal experience through internalisation.
Dramaturgy across spaces
Despite its origins there, my work happens to a large degree outside of theatre spaces; Positive Negative and Birds of Ill Omen were developed in abandoned factory halls, spaces where ghosts and architecture predominate the body, and I imagine myself in a space not isolated from the spatial and temporal realities of the world. I see the theatrical ‘black box’ as an editing tool; as an artist, I can build and edit visual ideas and physical apparitions to a minimalist degree, and create a curated version of reality.
Despite its origins there, my work happens to a large degree outside of theatre spaces; Positive Negative and Birds of Ill Omen were developed in abandoned factory halls, spaces where ghosts and architecture predominate the body, and I imagine myself in a space not isolated from the spatial and temporal realities of the world. I see the theatrical ‘black box’ as an editing tool; as an artist, I can build and edit visual ideas and physical apparitions to a minimalist degree, and create a curated version of reality.
Each component in the work is conceived as dramaturgy: light, sound, the presence and pace of the audience, and physical/movement scores. This applies as much to a visual arts space as to a theater space. In the dance performance Psalm for a Slut the sudden shock of a heavy latex curtain being pulled through the middle of the space before leaving the audience in total silence and darkness, letting the impact of a single action linger and play out imaginatively.
In the installation work THIS POSTCARD HAS BEEN PRINTED USING HIV POSITIVE BLOOD, shown at Kunstnerforbundet in 2023, the sound of the printer continuously editing the postcards, the vibration of the printer on the plinth, and the sound of paper cards falling to the stone floor were all thought out to bring attention to the seemingly standard printer, which I “biohacked”, by literally infusing it with a part of myself. The installation could be read as lone and precarious, but also as an embodiment of medical systemisation and seemingly endless repetition. By removing the seropositive body, I make the visitor aware of their body, and confront them with what is at stake.
Memorialisation and gravity
I also explore this in the difference between two well-established sociological and actively commemorating structures: the monument and memorial. While the ‘monument’ is a static reminder, the memorial is an active structure in which we exist and collective identities are influenced.
I also explore this in the difference between two well-established sociological and actively commemorating structures: the monument and memorial. While the ‘monument’ is a static reminder, the memorial is an active structure in which we exist and collective identities are influenced.
What is the place of the artist in the present temporality? How can what is narrativized and written in stone be revised, and future challenges mapped out, while I am situated in a precarious, not abstract, but embodied present?
Positioning myself, often using odd and ‘out of place’ materials, I make myself and my work a catalyst of the future in the past, and aim to build a different vision of shared histories, stories that deserve to be foregrounded. The stories that are lost by lack of direct descendants and through structural minimisation.
To avoid the creation of further phallic and grand monuments glorifying a story that deny other voices, I use the horizontal plane as a base in my various practices. The floor, the ground, the soil: that is where I resurrect ghosts and confront my own fears, attractions, and worries, and evoke those of others. Gravity is an ever-present force in my work, as a force fighting the verticality which signifies a body as “normal” and “able”. The ghosts of the artistic and medical legacies I evoke exist, in part, in the soil beneath me.
Corentin JPM LEVEN
