And how did it taste?

Multimedia performance with painting installation

This project is an intermedial performance exploring a viral story from social media. An influencer reportedly had her two lower ribs surgically removed to achieve a slimmer waist and wears a corset all day. In a video, she claims to have used the removed ribs to make a broth, which she drinks on camera. Whether true or not, this story raises urgent questions about the body, representation, and perception.

The investigation focuses on several aspects: the surgical intervention and corset use, with their risks, effects, and complications; the act of drinking a broth made from one’s own bones, which raises questions of (self-)cannibalism; the blurred boundary between truth and fiction online, including how desensitization and light engagement affect the reception of extreme acts; and the deeper ambiguity of self-love versus self-violence. Is this an act of devotion to one’s own image, a sacrifice for beauty, or harm inflicted on a body that is never enough?

The project is realized through a combination of painting, music, and video. The artist, a pianist and painter, works alone or in collaboration with a composer to create or adapt pieces for piano, fixed electronics, and video. Each musical composition is developed in parallel with a painting in an integrated process, where sound and image inform each other.

The final work consists of a 45-minute performance for piano, fixed electronics, and video, followed by a presentation of a series of paintings created during the process. The audience first experiences the performance in the main gallery space, where the piano and viewers are arranged together. The video is projected on a wall, while the paintings are displayed along the side. After the performance, the audience is invited to engage with the paintings, extending the experience into a visual dimension.