Ilina Chervonnaya speculates on the phenomenon of human body modulation, motivated by the myth of eternal youth.

In the presented installation, which contains  several series of sculptural embroidery, the artist invites viewers to reflect on the contemporary sphere of care with its numerous protocols focused on creating a modern type of corpoUNreality (the artist’s neologism), diverse techniques of flesh fiction, as well as methods of suppressing, superseding and suspending biological limits. 

The artist addresses the industry of care and its technologies by linking the nostalgic attraction to embroidery with the anxieties of the post-biological age, when everyone can reshape and re-edit themselves. According to the artist, by providing ideological support for the normalization of medical procedures as a free choice, the care industry creates an overwhelming and irresistible lust for constant healing and self-improvement, regardless of what actually causes the feeling of sickness. Thus, a modern wo/man inevitably perceives their body as a battlefield, a combat zone, a place for the  manifestation of (will)power, or more precisely, a surface for cutting and sewing.

In the spirit of the so-called pharmaco-pornographic regime diagnosed by philosopher Paul B. Preciado, Ilina reflects on the challenging choices that await the hero/ine in the next turn of the contemporary fairy tale, posing the following questions: Where does this desire for bodily self-editing come from and where does it lead? What kind of bio-fiction would the hero/ine like to become?

Trying to guess one of the possible scenarios, the artist turns to the novel  Zero K (2016) by American writer ‘Don’ De Lillo, who wittily predicts that human bodies, permeated with all kinds of preservatives, will serve as a fundamental element of the future art market.