Chapter IV: Becoming-With

We discuss human surface, its significance and its potential, seen as a site of contestation between mythology, biology and technology. Loan Favan’s artistic practice oscillates within this triangle. She looks at body modifications and scarification rituals within a range of cultures in Oceania, including Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and her native New Caledonia. Constantly connecting mythology to contemporary society, she looks ahead into deep future, speculating on how the rituals and rites of passage could transform future humans with the help of biological and technological modifications. Her work creates a vast world of multi-species symbiosis, where human surface morphs to accommodate new features necessary to survive and to thrive in the future. We examine possible connections between her work and the historic pieces in the Wereldmuseum’s collection.

Contributors: 

Loan Favan, Wonu Veys