Confino: My Body is Hell
November 5 - December 9, Turin, 2023
Confino is pleased to invite you to brunch on 5th November 11am - 2pm for the opening of:
My body is hell (Il mio corpo è l'inferno) Ruben Montini, founder of Confino, an artist run space, has invited ten artists into dialogue with his work:
Franko B, Przemek Branas, Andrej Dubravsky, Luca Frati, Kate Groobey, Natalia LL, Aris Mac Adden, Gianni Moretti, Karol Radziszewski, Nazim Unal Yilmaz.
RUBEN MONTINI says: “While I was sexting with a stranger on Grinder, I decided to interrupt the action and head towards his place. I didn’t see his face before heading down to his place, but he had seen mine. Although I am not a big fan of blind dates, this time everything promised to be kinky and I was absolutely into it! When I arrived at his, I completely undressed and laid naked on the rug before him, leaning on his couch. He was sitting on the armchair opposite and he said: ‘when we were sexting, you sounded absolutely slutty.. then you come here, you undress, and you show me this body that looks like it has been through a lot of trauma and pain’.
He was referring to all the tattoos I have on my skin, carrying the pain of my community, telling what the LGBTQI+ community is suffering, right now, in Europe.”
KATE GROOBEY says: “Female Stallion was conceived against a backdrop of growing homophobia across the globe, the overturning of Roe v. Wade in America, and the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ movement in Iran. I’m dressed as a horse, claiming my place in society today as a queer woman, repeating the words, ‘I am the female stallion, swish my tail, feel alive.’ The horse is a symbol of strength and my swishing tail is a gesture of solidarity and resistance.
My masked performances are something akin to traditional Japanese Nõ theatre, where actor and audience are encouraged to become one with a character in order to practice their skills of empathy, reflecting my belief that practicing empathy towards others is essential for a healthy society.
Get into my Rainbow is my response to anti-LGBTQI+ sentiment in Europe in particular. In 2017, when I visited Yosemite National Park in America with my wife, the writer Jina Khayyer, we were enveloped by a circular rainbow, created by the mist-spray of a giant waterfall. This magical image, of a protective rainbow that encircles the body, symbolising queer pleasure and safety, came back to me in 2021 when I performed in Poland and didn’t feel safe in a country whose state apparatus had introduced new anti-LGBTQI+ laws. Get into my rainbow is an invitation to both the LGBTQI+ and non-LGBTQI+ communities to join together in solidarity.
IMAGES: Left: Ruben Montini, live performance of San Sebastiano at Prometeo Gallery, 2021 Milan in which he invited six homosexual boys from the six European countries where neo-fascist movements are taking hold (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary) to tattoo on his back, each in their own language, homophobic insults or homophobic phrases uttered by the politicians of their countries. Right: Kate Groobey, live performance of Female Stallion at Sim Smith, 2022 London. Photo: Alex Watson.
Via Santhià 41
10154 TORINO