Venus Anatomica

2020

Performance given at the Fonds Hélène et Edouard Leclerc during the second lockdown in November 2020: https://fb.watch/1YQswd1lnY/

Venus Anatomica revisits the history of female representation through an artefact from the late 18th century: the anatomical Venus (a wax sculpture of a woman used to show the anatomy of the human body). By embodying a woman from the past, a hybrid figure between a witch, a "sleeping beauty" and the heroine of a painting, the artist is reconsidering this object that was exhibited in the first museums in Florence. Intended to reveal to the general public the hidden face of a mysterious and divine body, it was one of the first representations of the female reproductive body: a white, heteronormative body, in opposition to an impure, 'degenerate' femininity. Based on conversations with her grandmother and an artificial text generator, Judith Deschamps attempts to remake this body using wax and various materials collected in the course of her research. This technical and material duplication, carried out live during the performance, seeks to exorcise a history that continues to haunt the body.

With Mayotte Bollack, Transformer, La Rocade