2016

a long-durational performance with live shooting (4 hours)

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photography

Lukas Beyeler

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performance, costume and make-up

Valerie Reding and Evalyn Eatdith

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curated by

La Fête Du Slip, Elorri Harriet and Sandrine Thomas

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venue

FORMA Art Contemporain, Lausanne

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documentation

Ricardo Rodrigues Cunha

During the four hour long opening event of the festival „La Fête du Slip“ on the evening of the 27th February 2016, at the gallery FORMA Art Contemporain, performance artists Ivan Blagajcevic (a.k.a. Evalyn Eatdith) and Valerie Reding transformed directly in front of the public from one character into the next one, using make-up, wigs, beards, self-made costumes, loads of glitter and a clearly by the art of drag inspired aesthetic.

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During that ongoing process, all the personas created during the performance (four by each one of the performers), were captured on the spot by photographer Lukas Beyeler, who caught the elusiveness of this transformation right before the destruction of one character could nurture the release a new one. After taking each picture, Lukas then immediately proceeded to retouch the images, printed them out in a postcard format and handed them to the public.

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Blindly trusting Oscar Wilde’s words, the performers hoped that by the playful yet incessant character metamorphosis of that night, revealing the artificiality of beauty standards and stereotypes, life could be inspired to imitate art, dissolve the socially constructed boundaries between genders and explore the full spectrum of possible identities.