Embodiment

The exhibition Embodiment brings together works by 18 artists who confront social perceptions of disability. All the works originate in the artists’ own experiences. Drawing on their unique perspectives, the artists convey both the pleasures and difficulties of their daily lives. They express the emotional toll of marginalization and the experience of vulnerability in face of dependency and exclusion, but also the comfort of convivial forms of care and the liberating potential of social interdependence. Deeply invested in bioethics and activism, the artists turn their art into forms of resistance and a radical challenge to the social structures that exclude them. They present the complexities of living in an environment that constantly places obstacles in their way and, going beyond the ableism of physical space, they critically explore the structural forms of social oppression and objectification that persons with a disability face. By interrogating the dominant understanding of normality, autonomy, dependency, and other normative concepts that are persistently applied to the condition of disability, the artists bring viewers to a profound reevaluation of what it means to be disabled. The exhibition centers on conceptually driven art in a variety of mediums, including video, photography, sound, sculpture, installations, performance, and public intervention. The exhibition also includes a screendance section curated by choreographer Pam Kuntz.