19 Apr 2011

Be Another You at Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp

Come by.
Discover what you might want changed about yourself and how you are perceived.
We will help you to make it real for one day.

On Saturday April 30th from 11am to 7pm, at no cost, a team of advisors in costume, make-up and hairstyling will be available to help you shift the way you and others perceive you. We are not offering a makeover but a chance to step into a conversation and step out into your regular life transformed.

For one day, we offer you a place where you can temporarily change the way you feel and experience the world the world. At our informal bar, while having a coffee or a glass of wine, you can get more information, meet others who are also eager to be transformed or simply satisfy your curiosity. If you'd like your new image captured, a professional photographer will also be on hand.

You are then left to go back to your normal lives, yet transformed for one day. For the artists, the participants interaction with the public spaces in Antwerp constitutes an exhibition, which is ephemeral but in full public view.

Norma Jeane (the artist) was born in Los Angeles when Marilyn Monroe (the movie star) died on the night of August 4th, 1962. By taking possession of somebody else's personal data, renouncing a specific gender, and creating a proliferation of personalities, Norma Jeane produces uncountable 'copy and paste' versions of the persona in whom different features coexist, transcending any possible existing person. She is in fact an artist without a body. Her works have been shown at, amongst others, Objectif Exhibitions (Antwerp, 2011), Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2010), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2009), Frieze Projects (London, 2008), the Lyon Biennial (2007), Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin, 2006) and the Swiss Institute (New York, 2005). She will take part in the next Venice Biennale.

Tim Etchells is an artist and writer based in the UK, and is the leader of the world renowned performance group Forced Entertainment. His work spans performance, video, photography, text projects, installation and fiction. His first novel The Broken World was published by Heinemann in 2008 and his monograph on contemporary performance and Forced Entertainment, Certain Fragments (Routledge 1999) is widely acclaimed. In recent years Etchells has exhibited widely in the context of visual arts with solo shows at Sketch (London, 2007) and Gasworks (London, 2010), as well as participating in Manifesta 7 (Rovereto, 2008), Art Sheffield (2008), Goteborg Biennale (2009), October Salon (Belgrade, 2010) and the Aichi Triennale (2010).

Be Another You is part of the For Real! project, which aims to develop an effective and innovative methodology for the realisation of public art events. Initiated by Mai Abu ElDahab, Giovanni Carmine and Norma Jeane, For Real! aims to create a substantial and fair form of collaboration amongst artists, art institutions and local players (such as audience, professionals, private companies, civil organisations etc.) within the framework of public art. A first edition of For Real! took place at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen in November 2010, for more information see: www.k9000.ch.

The project team for Be Another You includes: Marina Castillo Deball, Dorothee Catry, Nathalie De Hen, Roel Melis, Gerlinde Vervenne and Ann Weckx.

Be Another You is part of www.CircularFacts.eu, supported by the European Union Culture Programme.