Taina Calissi, who developed breast cancer in 2020, drew her inspiration from the ordeal. A job that remained confidential, but which she wanted to highlight as the October Pink Awareness Operation draws to a close.
A multidisciplinary work of art (photo, video, dance…) born of physical suffering, which exposes its author, is the courageous and necessary work that Taina Calissi offers today to a wide audience. “’Body and tears’ is a job that I did in 2020, when I was in Toulouse for my treatment, rather than remaining inactive in the face of the Covid, in the face of what was happening to me, says Taina Calissi who endured seven months of treatment. If his favorite media are usually drawing and painting, for this work photography is essential because it is “more realistic.” “Twelve black and white photos, a participatory frieze of 22 shots and a” behind the scenes “video make up this work, presented behind closed doors in December 2020 in Toulouse and at the Belvédère in Tahiti during the Tatou exhibition. She explains that it was the other women who were going through the same ordeal as her who convinced her to overcome her modesty, and to affirm ” I am alive. “
It was through choreography, a series of exercises to which she forced herself, that Taina began this work. Before the illness, his body responded to him with the finger and the eye, “And pretty much overnight I found myself not being able to climb stairs, and that’s really shocking. “ The photos – shaved head, black two-piece – achieve their goal: to show the physical transformation induced by cancer treatment protocols, and also strength, will, resilience.
A workshop in Paris
Taina Calissi recently showed this work at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris, where she had been in artistic residency since July 5 following a competition set up by the Ministry of Culture, which also chose three other Polynesian artists. She was able to develop other aspects of her work, notably on volumes, by making clay masks – the link of this theme with the transformative experience of the disease will not escape anyone.
As she prepares to return to Tahiti, she has decided this time to write a book entitled A Workshop in Paris, strolls of a Polynesian woman, of which she presented the first pages and an introductory video during an “open studio” at the Cité des arts. She also took on the role of curator for a collective show. On her return, she will also resume the development of the RAW Tahiti platform, which wants to bring together and showcase Polynesian artists, and will begin the 3e season of his documentary series Creating Behind the Scenes.
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