GMU:Bits, Beats & Pieces/Modern Masculinities

studio set up - here with our first candidate David Dias

Media

Modern Masculinities - Video Installation (PW:likeaman)
contribution for 48 hour broadcast of Bauhaus FM on January 29th 2019 excerpt of roughly 11min of 1st interview
Modern Masculinities - Trailer (as shown at presentation)

Theme

“Our place in the gender order constrains our acts, but at the same time it is our acts (and those of others) that place us in the gender order and that bring the different aspects of gender into being. While social structure and available resources provide constraints, it is people who decide just how constrained they will allow themselves to be”(Eckert, McConnell-Ginet, p. 263)

For Simone de Beauvoir, women are not born, they are made. Under the light of gender construction, the same can be said of men.

Such comprehension of gender development, or as for superstar gender theorist Judith Butler, Gender Performativity, highlights how the development of a certain way of being within gender for each individual is something influenced by either an array of societal expectations and repetitions, as well as individual personal development within or outside the traits or constraints of such characteristics.

Modern Masculinities, a 4-channel video installation, intends to explore the palette of gender performativity through a conversation with men from a varied social and intercultural backgrounds, as an examination of the meeting points between embraced or denied characteristics, perceptions, and specially, potentialities of the rise of new comprehensions of possibilities of being a man in the 21st century. The piece, developed as a multi-channel installation as an artifact to stimulate the possibility of virtual encounters for reflecting modern masculinity, as expressed by some of the interviewed as still potentially hard to be discussed amongst other men, wether it happens through the refusal of expectations, or meeting points of individual journeys of gender development and comprehension of the role of men in contemporarity.

As comprehended by gender theorist Robert Connell, it’s vital to portrait Masculinities as a wider palette of possibilities of performing masculinity outside of the Hegemonic Masculinity, as understood as pre-defined traits of masculinity - and the piece, for itself, a portrait of some masculinities outside of such hegemony. Through the inspiration of Language studies, a space for elaboration on masculinity is also an attempt to break the silence on male normativity and still predominant categorizing systems, also considering its importance on development on societal discourses and its influence on new possibilities of social construction. The ongoing project, which is expected to approach other interviews with men from other backgrounds, and be translated in a physical multi-channel installation, aims to take use of such medium as the possibilities of creating new associations between the topic and the viewers, getting inspiration by the comprehension of the possibilities of Expanded Cinema with either works from the likes of Malcom Le Grice, Carolee Schneeman and William Raban, or contemporary artists like Candice Breitz and Isaac Julien, also exploring the potential of new storytelling possibilities and the incorporation of such storytelling in the physical space.

For a potential disposition of an exhibition room, a setting of the four-channels was thought considering the relationship between the different storytelling axis explored in each of the channels, comprehending different stages of gender comprehension, development and performance by the interviewed featured in the channel so far - Ettienne, from France; Ammar, from Sudan; David, from Brazil; Frederic, from Canada; and Clemens, from Germany.

Summary

The multi-channel installation can be summarized as reflections on masculinity by men with different sociocultural backgrounds, with an objective to investigate different approaches on the topic of masculinity filtered by various sociocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. It attempts also bring forward and give room to a topic that many men don’t feel comfortable elaborating on and attempting to initiate a platform of cultural exchange to the topic at hand. We wish to shed light on the various points of views concerning this issue depending on cultural, socioeconomic background, upbringing, and so forth, certainly aware though, that the approach is not fully representative as we are talking to a selected demographic - young, well educated men pursuing their studies in western Europe.

The decision on a classical studio setting for the recording sessions is in order to create a homogenic atosphere. This, in the edit, creates the impression of "talking heads" on a monochrome background. These heads simultaneously create a choir of chatter, freely associating on the given topic at hand. It is up to the spectator to later discover similarities, differences, humoristic approaches and so forth. By accumulating these expressions, as they are articulated and centered into a single screen, it will display the fact that many of the triggered thoughts are just birthed into the realm of consciousness as it seems they haven't had room, time and space to be elaborated on previously.

Multi-channel Installation | Exhibition Set Up

Bibliographical References

Rees, A.L.; White, Duncan; Ball, Steven; Curtis, David (editors): Expanded Cinema - Art, Performance, Film. London, 2011. ISBN 1854379747
Eckert, Penelope; McConnell-Ginet, Sally: Language and Gender, 2nd Edition. Melbourne, 2013. ISBN 1107029058
Cohan, Steve; Ina Rae, Hark: Screening the male, exploring masculinities in Hollywood Cinema. Oxford, 1994. ISBN 0415077591
Moore, Keith: Performance, Masculinity and Confrontation - How males learn manliness. 2012.
Wetherell, Edley: Negotiating Hegemonic Masculinity - Imaginary positions and psycho-discursive Practices. 1999.
Ho, Jonathan: Fetishizing Masculinity. Eindhoven, 2017.
Vestoj n.7 - The journal of sartorial matters - On Masculinities - What makes a man?. Paris, 2016. ASIN B073R3KQHL
Adbusters: Deeply Broken Men(#140, Vol. 26, No.6). Vancouver, November/December 2018.
Friedman, Jaclyn: Building better man: how we can begin to redefine masculinity. On the Guardian. 12/03/2018, access on 11/12/2018.
Orenstein, Peggy: We can’t just let boys be boys. On The New York Times. 29/09/2018, access on 14/12/2018.
Ono, Yoko: The feminization of society. On The New York Times. 23/02/1972, access on 28/12/2018.
Breitz, Candice: Him
Breitz, Candice: TLDR