Artist, Hélène Gugenheim makes scars sparkle with gold leaf. A few months ago the French artist met a woman. When she had to change clothes for the occassion, Guggenheim notcied that this woman had a huge scar on the spot where first her left breast had been.
This was the start of the project ‘Mes cicatrices, Je suis d’elles, entièrement tissé (my scars, I am completely interwined with them). In a series of photos and video performances the scars of participants had been painted in a subtle manner with gold leaf.
We all bear scars, on our body or invisible to the eye, but showing through our behaviours. They come from appendicitis, broken heart, injustice, mastectomy, accident… (Gugenheim).
Each scar tells a story of which we are the hero. A scar is the mark of a wound. But it is also the vibrant proof of the healing process, the sign that we have come to terms with a traumatic experience. A wound separates us from our former self and disrupts the course of our life. The healing process enables us to recreate a functional entity – but an entity that is not a return to our previous state, because the wound has changed it forever. The scar is therefore a witness of our reconstruction and the sign of our capacity to adapt, to reinvent ourselves and even mutate. In this respect, we are all gods (Gugenheim).
Gugenheim was inspired by the principle of Kintsugi, this is a Japanese art form in which broken pottery is glued with a mixture of gold and epoxy in which the fracture will be visible. It makes the original plate or teacup even more beautiful; imperfections become a sign of beauty.
Like the broken ceramics, scars will be a sign of strength and life, rather than a painful memory. Afterwards the gold will be removed and dissolved in a pot of alcohol as a permanent memory of this moment.
Source:
http://helenegugenheim.com/?cat=1
http://www.paradijsvogelsmagazine.nl/kunstenares-laat-littekens-schitteren-met-bladgoud/
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