Ingrid Bachmann
BEMIS CENTER
The technology of transplantation is indebted to the concept of hospitality: it mobilizes the relationship between host (recipient) and guest (donor), and the hostility that is central to hospitality. While the recipient needs the transplant to stay alive, their body ceaselessly works to reject it while their mind and emotions labor to integrate it: staying alive means embodying fluid physical, chemical, emotional, and even spectral interactions. Transplantation thus troubles both the categorical divide between living and non-living (since the donor is often deceased) and the autonomy, integrity, and sovereignty that buttress the modern, humanist self. To lessen this challenge, donation is often glossed as either miracle or gift.
Bachmann’s video seeks to expand this vocabulary: it hosts two dancers working through a broadly evocative spectrum, including isolation and togetherness, challenge and support, violence and care. The dancers may be seen to assume the roles of donor and recipient. They might also embody more-than-human relations. The Gift was created as part of Hybrid Bodies, a multidisciplinary research and artistic project focused on exploring the complexities of organ transplantation by raising questions about bodily integrity, personal identity, and the relationship between organ recipients and their donors.
BIOGRAPHY
Montreal-based transdisciplinary artist Ingrid Bachmann works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, textiles, video, performance, and kinetic sculpture, to explore the complex social, emotional, and biological dimensions of contemporary life.
PROGRAMS
RESOURCES
Ingrid Bachmann
BEMIS CENTER
The technology of transplantation is indebted to the concept of hospitality: it mobilizes the relationship between host (recipient) and guest (donor), and the hostility that is central to hospitality. While the recipient needs the transplant to stay alive, their body ceaselessly works to reject it while their mind and emotions labor to integrate it: staying alive means embodying fluid physical, chemical, emotional, and even spectral interactions. Transplantation thus troubles both the categorical divide between living and non-living (since the donor is often deceased) and the autonomy, integrity, and sovereignty that buttress the modern, humanist self. To lessen this challenge, donation is often glossed as either miracle or gift.
Bachmann’s video seeks to expand this vocabulary: it hosts two dancers working through a broadly evocative spectrum, including isolation and togetherness, challenge and support, violence and care. The dancers may be seen to assume the roles of donor and recipient. They might also embody more-than-human relations. The Gift was created as part of Hybrid Bodies, a multidisciplinary research and artistic project focused on exploring the complexities of organ transplantation by raising questions about bodily integrity, personal identity, and the relationship between organ recipients and their donors.
BIOGRAPHY
Montreal-based transdisciplinary artist Ingrid Bachmann works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, textiles, video, performance, and kinetic sculpture, to explore the complex social, emotional, and biological dimensions of contemporary life.