Somatic Communism, 2022.

"Because the attempt was to do what is
done in cartoons: draw a door in the wall
of sexual and gender oppression and escape
through it. Then Sofia used the
world "Polyphonie", which I liked a lot.
But ‘Butt Smack Bongo’ was being
used and linked up to porn groups."
Ève Gabriel Chabanon
Somatic Communism

Ève Gabriel Chabanon (*1989, FR) lives and works in Brussels. They graduated from the Haute École des Arts du Rhin (HEAR) and at the Sorbonne Université, and participated in the Open School East (London and Margate). They took part in several residencies, including at the White House (Dagenham), the FRAC Grand Large (Dunkirk) and Te Whare Hera (Wellington, New Zealand), where they presented their first solo exhibition "Eating Each Other" in 2019. They was awarded the Prix Sciences Po for contemporary art in 2018 for the project "The Anti-Social Social Club: Episode One, The Chamber of the Dispossessed". The project "The surplus of the non-producer" was presented at Lafayette Anticipations (2018), Bétonsalon - Centre d'art et de recherche, Paris (2020), Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster (2020) and Beursschouwburg, Brussels (2021). (Sofia Dati)

The chapter #no/thingness of re.act feminism #3 looks into strategies for existing and resisting within the threat of annihilation. And it is through #polyphony that we propose to carve out a space for dissonance, refusal, fantasy.

Moving inwards from the logics of individualism through the lens of collective modes of production and valuation, Somatic Communism considers the sociality that composes each individual. Ève Gabriel Chabanon inhabits different spaces of collectivity and #interdependency using text, textile, and cultivating mycelium on surfaces of used clothes. Mycelium is the main character of Somatic Communism. It is a living tissue that feeds on matter (sometimes in decomposition), and constitutes the basis from which mushrooms grow. Mushrooms are #surplus bodies. They recycle matter. Common matter. Matter in common. Their modes of #consumption reflect a refusal to be one and the same. They point to that inherent plurality that shapes ‘A subject that is #collectively subjected’ (Paul B. Preciado). Somatic Communism connects threads together to form a body, all bodies, our ‘bodies in plural’ (Chiara Bottici).

Through a series of photographs and poetic interventions that accompany the growth of Ève Gabriel’s mushroom cultivation, the work embraces the transformative nature of bodies and identities and echoes the performance Integrations in Water by Yeni and Nan (1982), which is now featuring alongside Somatic Communism. With a playful attitude toward the historical, the archival and the mythical story, the artist also winks to the bold humour and catchy beats of the polyphonic Butt Smack Bongo (2007) by Chicks on Speed. With its layered registers, the work invites us to rethink our relation to the multiple and the surrounding: how we dispose of our bodies, of our senses, of our resources and our power.

Selected work from the re.act.feminism archive
Yeni & Nan: Integrations in Water

Somatic Communism is co-produced by ISELP, Brussels. The installation that hosts the mycelium cultivation documented in the photographic series will be displayed at ISELP in autumn 2022.

Format
Digital Photography

Document media
Digital Photography / Poems

Issue date
2022

To be seen in
no/thingness, re.act.feminism #3 – polyphonies. interferences. drifts., 2022-2023

Relations
Poem Link: Because the attempt was...

Curated by
Sofia Dati
A
Ebtisam Abdulaziz
Marina Abramović
Helena Almeida
Eleanor Antin
Arahmaiani
Malin Arnell
Oreet Ashery
Augusta Atla
Margarita Azurdia
B
Antonia Baehr
Maja Bajević
Anne Bean
Anat Ben-David
Renate Bertlmann
Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz
Nisrine Boukhari
Marijs Boulogne
Tania Bruguera
Nancy Buchanan
Maris Bustamante
C
Cabello / Carceller
Shirley Cameron/ Monica Ross/ Evelyn Silver
Graciela Carnevale
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Ève Gabriel Chabanon
Helen Chadwick
Chicks on Speed
Lygia Clark
Paul Clarke
Mary Coble
Colette
Cooltūristės
Corpus Deleicti
Nieves Correa
Laura Cottingham
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen
D
Katrina Daschner
Vlasta Delimar
Carola Dertnig
Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Disband
Ines Doujak
Orshi Drozdik
Yingmei Duan
Kirsten Dufour
Fabienne Dumont
E
Silvia Eiblmayr
Diamela Eltit
Rose English
VALIE EXPORT
F
F.F.F.F.
Factory of Found Clothes
Esther Ferrer
Les filles Föllen
Rose Finn-Kelcey
Angelika Fojtuch
Simone Forti
Coco Fusco
G
(e.) Twin Gabriel
Regina José Galindo
Anna Bella Geiger
Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin
Patrycja German
Ghazel
Kate Gilmore
Trine Mee Sook Gleerup
H
Mona Hatoum
Lynn Hershman
High Heel Sisters
María Teresa Hincapié
Nan Hoover
I
Icelandic Love Corporation - Gjörningaklúbburinn
Sanja Iveković
J
Elżbieta Jabłońska
Françoise Janicot
Joan Jonas
Anne Jud
Birgit Jürgenssen
Kirsten Justesen
K
Kanonklubben
Line Skywalker Karlström
Tina Keane
Klonaris / Thomadaki
Bettina Knaup & Beatrice Ellen Stammer
Jakob Lena Knebl
Verica Kovacevska
Elena Kovylina
Katarzyna Kozyra
Christina Kubisch
Kvinder på Værtshus (Women down the pub)
Verena Kyselka
L
Nicola L
Latifa Laâbissi
Leslie Labowitz
Leslie Labowitz & Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy
Katalin Ladik
Sigalit Landau
Klara Lidén
Kalup Linzy
Natalia LL
Léa Lublin
M
Jumana Manna
Manon
MaraM
María Evelia Marmolejo
Muda Mathis
Dóra Maurer
Mónica Mayer
Ana Mendieta
Marta Minujín
Fina Miralles
Molly and me
Linda Montano
Charlotte Moorman
Teresa Murak
Sands Murray-Wassink
MwangiHutter
N
Narcissister
Rabbya Naseer & Hurmat Ul Ain
Senga Nengudi
Les Nyakes
O
Lorraine O'Grady
Itziar Okariz
Yoko Ono
ORLAN
Tanja Ostojić
Paulina Ołowska & Lucy McKenzie
Funda Özgünaydin
Hannah O’Shea
P
Gina Pane
Letícia Parente
Ewa Partum
Bojana Pejić
Jillian Peña
Performance Saga
Sanja Iveković & Performance Saga
Friederike Pezold
Howardena Pindell
Adrian Piper
Mariuccia Pisani
Polvo de Gallina Negra
Pussy Riot
R
Yvonne Rainer
Eglė Rakauskaitė
Laurence Rassel
Chris Regn
Jytte Rex
Àngels Ribé
La Ribot
Angelika Richter
Jesusa Rodríguez / Liliana Felipe
Ulrike Rosenbach
Martha Rosler
Boryana Rossa
María Ruido
S
Raeda Saadeh
Estíbaliz Sábada
Andrea Saemann
Zorka Ságlová
Les Salonnières and Dr. Soley
Christine Schlegel
Cornelia Schleime
Carolee Schneemann
Rebecca Schneider
Schwarze Schokolade
Stefanie Seibold
Stefanie Seibold & Teresa María Díaz Nerio
Miriam Sharon
Bonnie Ora Sherk
Barbara T. Smith
Cornelia Sollfrank
Antonieta Sosa
Spiderwoman Theater
Annie M. Sprinkle
Sandra Sterle
Gabriele Stötzer
Annika Ström
Melati Suryodarmo
Anna Szwajgier/ Zorka Wollny
T
Jinoos Taghizadeh
Milica Tomić
Mare Tralla
Teresa Tyszkiewicz
U
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
V
Valie Export Society
Cecilia Vicuña
W
The Waitresses
Faith Wilding
Hannah Wilke
Martha Wilson
Julita Wójcik
Y
Nil Yalter
Yeni & Nan