Liu Bolin's Camouflage Art Performance at Bocconi

ON 3 OCTOBER THE CHINESE ARTIST WILL BLEND HIMSELF INTO HIS SURROUNDINGS USING BODY PAINTING. A SELECTION OF HIS PHOTOS ARE ON EXHIBITION UNTIL JANUARY ON CAMPUS

Known as the invisible man, Liu Bolin will perform one of his camouflage photography performances at Bocconi University on Thursday 3 October. The event, reserved for the Bocconi community, falls within the scope of BAG - Bocconi Art Gallery - and is organized in collaboration with the Boxart Gallery and MIA Photo Fair. The artist will give a short speech before beginning his performance and will be photographed completely integrated with the background thanks to his body painting technique.

Open until 15 January 2020, on the other hand, is the new photographic exhibition, curated by Mia Photo Fair as part of the artist’s personal show, "The Deep Form of the Real" in the underground level of Via Sarfatti 25 (Mon-Fri 9am-6pm; Sat 10am-6pm, free admission).   Shown are a series of shots in which the artist integrates himself into the places he has decided to capture in photos.

"Liu Bolin is a truly international artist who manages to capture the most iconic symbols of different countries, interpreting them with his original poetics," explains Severino Salvemini, president of the Bocconi Committee for Contemporary Art. "Bocconi University is pleased to present to its international community of students and faculty such a prestigious art photographer, who has agreed to mark his artistic career with a performance in our University".

His performances began following the destruction of Suojia village, where the artist lived northeast of Beijing. It was ordered by government authorities in 2005, marking the decisive moment in which Bolin turned to the context of perspective to create the image that gave rise to the series of shots entitled Hiding in the City. By tracing the lines of the rubble of his razed neighborhood on his body, Liu Bolin created an image in which an element that distorts space - his own physical outlines - forces the viewer to look at that exact portion of reality. It is about hiding to call attention to certain places, making them more visible by making himself almost invisible.
 
 

by Benedetta Ciotto
Translated by Richard Greenslade