On November 30, 2020, at the MONA Museum of Ancient and Modern History in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, Australia, Tim has sat naked for 4,200 hours at the bottom of the mezzanine, showing his back to the visitors, a pair of which is based on the Virgin Mary. Vision center tattoo. Even on March 18, when the museum was forced to close due to the new crown epidemic, as the bearer of the exhibits, he still fulfilled the contract and strictly practiced the 10-4:30-6 working system (10:00 am to 4:00 pm). 3:30, closed on Tuesdays), sitting in an empty museum. As early as 2011, he sat in MOMA. Although he has also toured some art galleries in his hometown in Europe, his new contract with Tasmania MONA has been renewed for 10 years. He will continue to come to work and carry the tattoo of the same name Tim. , sitting until April 2030.
Before serving as an art display board, Tim was the manager of a tattoo shop in Zurich. In 2008, Belgian contemporary artist Wim Delvoye completed this tattoo on Tim's back. After showing in Europe for a few years, it was sold to a German curator and collector. Tim himself gets a third of it. In the contract, after Tim's eventual death, the skin carrying the tattoo artwork would be carefully removed and framed as a canvas.
This real contemporary art incident, apparently suspected of human trafficking, was adapted into the film "The Man Who Sold His Skin" by Tunisian female director Kaouther Ben Hania, and was nominated for this year's Oscar for Best International Film. one. The film begins with the installation in a spotless white space, with the camera zoomed in from the back of the artist's head into the frame, with a Schengen visa on a light brown background. From the end of the film, it can be seen that this is the skin of the dead male protagonist Sam, such as the life contract that Tim is going to travel in the ongoing art event - the skin will continue to be used for exhibitions after his death.
In order to make a piece of performance art that seems to be full and supportive, have the contemporary and political significance that the audience can understand, and at the same time generate introspection and criticism of the contemporary art market, Kaouther replaced the real Zurich tattoo parlor protagonist with fiction. Syrian refugee Sam. And from the first scene after entering the normal plot narrative, it focuses on showing Sam's back, which is the male protagonist who was thrown into the Assad government prison at the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, pulling the small window with both hands. , trying to see what's going on outside. Unfortunately, he is from Raqqa, the "capital" of the Islamic State that existed for a short time under the control of ISIS, so household registration has become a criminal evidence that can be detained.
It's more about the real need to fly away when the disaster is imminent, rather than the terrible love line in the screenwriter's story, which made Sam flee to neighboring Lebanon, where he was caught by contemporary artist Jeffrey - - A contemporary Jesus who can "turn water into wine" - hit the nail on the head. Further triggers a wonderful story inspired by tattoo bearer Tim.
The civil war separated Sam from his girlfriend, who a year later became the wife of a diplomat in Belgium. Although it is destined to change nothing, but want to go to Europe to meet again, Sam needs a Schengen visa that refugees dream of. The artist Jeffrey can give him one, but he will issue a similar to the devil Mephistopheles in Faust. The condition is, "Create and exhibit your back for me, and give you one-third of the profits from the exhibition, sale and auction." Thus, a simple but powerful contemporary art that alludes to the problems of the Syrian civil war and the refugee flow in Europe— — A Schengen visa tattoo, was born.
In Western Europe, where political correctness and the dignity of human rights are always talked about, does such a work of art that exploits the situation and needs of refugees violate human rights? As a sovereign state in the civil war, Syrian diplomats and refugee groups protested at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels, where Sam's Back is exhibited. But Sam, who lives in a five-star hotel, only sits in a constant temperature art gallery and listens to music with headphones every day, and gets huge dividends from time to time, will think, "If this is a violation of human rights, then I am 10,000 happy."
As early as 1995, in Ye Daying's film "Red Cherry", which was also adapted from real history, Chu Chu, a Chinese girl who studied in the Soviet Union, was also invaded by Nazi officers during World War II, and the fascist emblem was tattooed on the entire back. The officer sighed proudly at his work, "Art is eternal." In "Skin Pawns", the "art" that is also carried on the back of the human body is not only eternal, but also appreciates with the collection and auction market. The collector, at the instigation of his wife, bought Sam because he believed that "this work of art bears the signature of the devil." Jeffrey, the artist of the devil, explained to the media the injustice and absurdity of the world, "In India, a 40 euros for a baby; 1,200 euros for a surrogate in Thailand; $25 million for bin Laden’s head. Don’t be cynical, just make a little comparison and you’ll know the cruel truth of the world.”
Contemporary artists who are very rich in the market are also accustomed to criticism from the intellectual circles, and often start their own hands-on introspection/self-defeating. The tattoo artist Wim, the original Tim of the movie's story, also made a cameo appearance in "Skin Pawns", playing an insurance broker who completes transactions for collectors, "Of course I want Sam to live a long life, it would be fine if he died of cancer. , but he comes from a country that has been in constant war, and if he died in an explosion, then I can't imagine it." It seems that the insurance terms of the Schengen visa tattoo art have no common constraints, that is, force majeure such as war.
Contemporary art has always used a high-level academic discourse to give provocative and controversial works a rationality that transcends secular morality. For example, because the task of art is to explore the unknown frontier, then the art transaction in the story should not be tantamount to human trafficking. What on earth does Sam, who can carry this Schengen visa artwork, think? With a very strong self-awareness, he is by no means an excellent refugee who can live in a five-star hotel and an art gallery. Faust, who sold his soul to Mephistopheles, also wants to be liberated and free.
At another auction, Sam, who always shows his back, suddenly turns around, walks off the booth, and squeezes the earphone cord, like a fundamentalist terrorist who is about to launch another suicide bombing on Europe. This absurd scene of Gao Da's auction can also be compared to a 2005 Palestinian film "Heaven Now", in which two children who have been brainwashed by terrorism all the year round are given the task of going to the Palestinian-Israeli border to complete a trip. The glorious quest of no return, to enter the heaven where the magic stick promises an inexhaustible supply of raisins and the company of 72 virgins. But in the country video store, after seeing the clearly marked price of the suicide bombing video, I have self-doubt.
In order to make the absurdity fully and thoroughly, the director gave Sam in the film a happy ending that is absolutely impossible in reality. He won back his ex-girlfriend and eloped to return both of them. Remember Sam's hometown? The Syrian city of Raqqa, the "capital" of ISIS. The end of his life can be imagined. Since ISIS elements know how to steal and sell oil, they also know how the contemporary art market works. The skin that was sold returned to the exhibition shelves of the art gallery, and the contemporary Faust, who redeemed his soul, finally entered heaven.
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