bodyPARTicipation

Bodyparticipation
After intensive research into my own medical history, I make a list of all my injured or weakened body parts.
For each of these parts of the body I prepare Certificates together with a graphic designer to be given to the future godfather/mother (see attached) with following content:

Herewith I assume the godhood for the body part _____________
of the artist Dorothea Seror
Description ________________________
(injuries, operarions, scars, treatments)
Updated in an agreement on the development of the indicated body part. Hereby I do not take on any financial obligations.
At the following email address there is at any time provided information available.
Bodyparticipation.doroseror@gmail.com


At the Festival -Venue I distribute the godfather/mother cards to the audience.
Dressed in skin-colored underwear I present myself to the audience. I ask the individual cardholders to step forward and mark the body part on my body that they have "pulled" with the card and to hang the card atthe same place on the picture (at the magnetic board). (lifesized frontal body image from the project the ideal body) I then briefly describe the body part and its specificity.
At the end of the presentation, the spectators trake the cards from the magnetic board and aproach my assistant. She fills the full names, phone number and email address of the the godparents in a list that shows which part of my body they do take over the godparenthood.
I also sign their cards (certificates).
After one year, I will reinsure the sponsorship by email and ask for a renewed expression of will.

Dear godfather/mother
Apparently it makes sense, to reinsure your willful intent about the godparenthood every year.
Please verify the applicable statement, sign it and send it back to
bodyparticipation.doroseror@gmail.com or doro@dorotheaseror.de
0 Herewith I reinsure my intent for the year 2017, to care for the bodypart
 xxx of Dorothea Seror.
I am aware that the bodypart has several injuries and may require increasing care during the aging process.
Godfather/mother: xxx Place: xxx Date: xxx


In this performance I deal with the most important "tool" in performance art: the artist’s  body as subject and object. To whom does the artist's body belong if the artist, paid by an organization / institution for a performance, makes him/her/itself available to the public? Does the body belong to him/her, the organizer and / or the audience? Or all together? How is this participation be made up and, above all, made public? By deliberately handing over limited, injured and damaged body parts to mentors, I try to illustrate the transience of my body as a tool of my art. I can not take responsibility on my own for something that is the content and the means of my public artwork, and also is exposed to deterioration and damaged. Who takes the responsibility whenthe body undertakes (and thus me) a “repairing process”? Does not the so-called public have to be involved if the body of the artist is available to them with its art?
In this lifelong project, as a body artist, I try to take responsibility for the quality of my work and the “material” of my work, to share my body with the public. Also because my work mostly takes place in public space.
The final consequence of this idea would be to hand over “prepared body parts” to the respective godfathers after my physical death. But since no funds flow, that means the godparetns assume no financial obligations to the maintenance of the respective body part I rather think of the body to be prepared as a whole and handed over to a museum. The godfathers will receive a certificate(card) equal to their “share”. If they have been contributing financially to its repair, of course there are also claims to be negotiated here.
September 2016
préavis de désordre urbain 10
redplexus, festival international de performance
Cranbiere
Marseille, France