Ring of Submission Exposition « Le Maroc Contemporain », Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris / 2014
La prédation ne croit pas à la mort !
Exposition Le Maroc Contemporain, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris / 2014
RING OF SUBMISSION
This project is brought to life through a refrigerated machine placed in a full-scale boxing ring. In it, a life-size frozen human body molded on the artist is released at regular intervals. Rather than standing in an active position, this fighter is stuck on the ground, in a passive posture, a state of submission. He has no visible opponent. He simply submits to the surrounding context. In this installation, water is transformed from a solid to liquid state in the presence of the public, like a slow and silent fight. This event is programmed to repeat itself over and over again. However, the system's accuracy depends on the climate where the installation is placed. For it is the ambient temperature and heat from the public that accelerates this change in state. Once transformed to liquid, scattered and imperceptible, the water that remains is collected by the machine to be frozen again, then injected back into the boxing ring and dissolved in a repetitive cycle that is potentially infinite. The transformation unfolds as spectacle and meditation simultaneously, forcing viewers to witness the gradual erasure of human form, the dissolution of individuality into formless substance. The boxing ring, traditionally a site of contest and determination of victor, becomes instead a space of predetermined defeat, where the opponent is not another body but the inevitable forces of thermodynamics and systemic reproduction.
read more
RING OF SUBMISSION
This project is brought to life through a refrigerated machine placed in a full-scale boxing ring. In it, a life-size frozen human body molded on the artist is released at regular intervals. Rather than standing in an active position, this fighter is stuck on the ground, in a passive posture, a state of submission. He has no visible opponent. He simply submits to the surrounding context. In this installation, water is transformed from a solid to liquid state in the presence of the public, like a slow and silent fight. This event is programmed to repeat itself over and over again. However, the system's accuracy depends on the climate where the installation is placed. For it is the ambient temperature and heat from the public that accelerates this change in state. Once transformed to liquid, scattered and imperceptible, the water that remains is collected by the machine to be frozen again, then injected back into the boxing ring and dissolved in a repetitive cycle that is potentially infinite. The transformation unfolds as spectacle and meditation simultaneously, forcing viewers to witness the gradual erasure of human form, the dissolution of individuality into formless substance. The boxing ring, traditionally a site of contest and determination of victor, becomes instead a space of predetermined defeat, where the opponent is not another body but the inevitable forces of thermodynamics and systemic reproduction.
read more
RING OF SUBMISSION
This project is brought to life through a refrigerated machine placed in a full-scale boxing ring. In it, a life-size frozen human body molded on the artist is released at regular intervals. Rather than standing in an active position, this fighter is stuck on the ground, in a passive posture, a state of submission. He has no visible opponent. He simply submits to the surrounding context. In this installation, water is transformed from a solid to liquid state in the presence of the public, like a slow and silent fight. This event is programmed to repeat itself over and over again. However, the system's accuracy depends on the climate where the installation is placed. For it is the ambient temperature and heat from the public that accelerates this change in state. Once transformed to liquid, scattered and imperceptible, the water that remains is collected by the machine to be frozen again, then injected back into the boxing ring and dissolved in a repetitive cycle that is potentially infinite. The transformation unfolds as spectacle and meditation simultaneously, forcing viewers to witness the gradual erasure of human form, the dissolution of individuality into formless substance. The boxing ring, traditionally a site of contest and determination of victor, becomes instead a space of predetermined defeat, where the opponent is not another body but the inevitable forces of thermodynamics and systemic reproduction.
read more
Realization Process / 2012-2014
FROZEN RESIDENCE:
The machine seems to symbolize the dominant culture through which power seeks to reproduce individuals similar to herding ideas and behaviors. Each time the body isolates itself and escapes from the machine, it finds itself surrounded by a new multitude, absorbed by forces which erode its individuality. The only remedy for this situation of alienation: stubborn and repeated resistance, hopelessly in vain. In this monumental installation, Amine El Gotaibi subjected a model of his own frozen body to heat as an act of resistance, a call for change to return to a living and flexible state, that of liquid water, which could potentially lead to rebirth. For El Gotaibi, the transformation of the body and the individual in response to external events is similar to ice melting, an expression of the only tangible notion of time that humans can perceive: disappearance. The work acknowledges that resistance, while perhaps futile in preventing ultimate absorption back into the machine's cycle, remains necessary as gesture, as refusal to accept passivity without contestation. The melting becomes both liberation and loss, the body achieving liquid flexibility only to be captured once more, refrozen, and returned to its position of submission.
read more
FROZEN RESIDENCE:
The machine seems to symbolize the dominant culture through which power seeks to reproduce individuals similar to herding ideas and behaviors. Each time the body isolates itself and escapes from the machine, it finds itself surrounded by a new multitude, absorbed by forces which erode its individuality. The only remedy for this situation of alienation: stubborn and repeated resistance, hopelessly in vain. In this monumental installation, Amine El Gotaibi subjected a model of his own frozen body to heat as an act of resistance, a call for change to return to a living and flexible state, that of liquid water, which could potentially lead to rebirth. For El Gotaibi, the transformation of the body and the individual in response to external events is similar to ice melting, an expression of the only tangible notion of time that humans can perceive: disappearance. The work acknowledges that resistance, while perhaps futile in preventing ultimate absorption back into the machine's cycle, remains necessary as gesture, as refusal to accept passivity without contestation. The melting becomes both liberation and loss, the body achieving liquid flexibility only to be captured once more, refrozen, and returned to its position of submission.
read more
FROZEN RESIDENCE:
The machine seems to symbolize the dominant culture through which power seeks to reproduce individuals similar to herding ideas and behaviors. Each time the body isolates itself and escapes from the machine, it finds itself surrounded by a new multitude, absorbed by forces which erode its individuality. The only remedy for this situation of alienation: stubborn and repeated resistance, hopelessly in vain. In this monumental installation, Amine El Gotaibi subjected a model of his own frozen body to heat as an act of resistance, a call for change to return to a living and flexible state, that of liquid water, which could potentially lead to rebirth. For El Gotaibi, the transformation of the body and the individual in response to external events is similar to ice melting, an expression of the only tangible notion of time that humans can perceive: disappearance. The work acknowledges that resistance, while perhaps futile in preventing ultimate absorption back into the machine's cycle, remains necessary as gesture, as refusal to accept passivity without contestation. The melting becomes both liberation and loss, the body achieving liquid flexibility only to be captured once more, refrozen, and returned to its position of submission.
read more
Realization Process / 2012-2014
SYSTEMATIC STANDARDIZATION
To criticize the political systems which standardize the thoughts and the individuals is doomed to an inevitable submission. The challenge against these homogenizing forces is futile, as the structures of power are designed to absorb and neutralize any resistance. This tragic destiny highlights the inherent difficulty in maintaining individuality when faced with systemic political control. The installation does not offer hope of escape but instead presents the conditions of entrapment with unflinching clarity. The body melts, reforms, melts again in perpetual cycle, never achieving permanent liberation, never remaining frozen in defiant stasis. This repetition mirrors the experience of individuals within systems that claim to value freedom while constructing ever more sophisticated mechanisms of control and reproduction. The public's presence accelerates the melting, implicating viewers in the process of dissolution, suggesting that we are not merely observers of these cycles but participants whose very attention and heat contribute to the erosion of resistance. Yet the work's power resides not in any promise of transcendence but in its insistence on making visible what is often obscured: that submission is engineered, that compliance is manufactured, and that the fight continues even when victory appears impossible.
read more
SYSTEMATIC STANDARDIZATION
To criticize the political systems which standardize the thoughts and the individuals is doomed to an inevitable submission. The challenge against these homogenizing forces is futile, as the structures of power are designed to absorb and neutralize any resistance. This tragic destiny highlights the inherent difficulty in maintaining individuality when faced with systemic political control. The installation does not offer hope of escape but instead presents the conditions of entrapment with unflinching clarity. The body melts, reforms, melts again in perpetual cycle, never achieving permanent liberation, never remaining frozen in defiant stasis. This repetition mirrors the experience of individuals within systems that claim to value freedom while constructing ever more sophisticated mechanisms of control and reproduction. The public's presence accelerates the melting, implicating viewers in the process of dissolution, suggesting that we are not merely observers of these cycles but participants whose very attention and heat contribute to the erosion of resistance. Yet the work's power resides not in any promise of transcendence but in its insistence on making visible what is often obscured: that submission is engineered, that compliance is manufactured, and that the fight continues even when victory appears impossible.
read more
SYSTEMATIC STANDARDIZATION
To criticize the political systems which standardize the thoughts and the individuals is doomed to an inevitable submission. The challenge against these homogenizing forces is futile, as the structures of power are designed to absorb and neutralize any resistance. This tragic destiny highlights the inherent difficulty in maintaining individuality when faced with systemic political control. The installation does not offer hope of escape but instead presents the conditions of entrapment with unflinching clarity. The body melts, reforms, melts again in perpetual cycle, never achieving permanent liberation, never remaining frozen in defiant stasis. This repetition mirrors the experience of individuals within systems that claim to value freedom while constructing ever more sophisticated mechanisms of control and reproduction. The public's presence accelerates the melting, implicating viewers in the process of dissolution, suggesting that we are not merely observers of these cycles but participants whose very attention and heat contribute to the erosion of resistance. Yet the work's power resides not in any promise of transcendence but in its insistence on making visible what is often obscured: that submission is engineered, that compliance is manufactured, and that the fight continues even when victory appears impossible.
read more
Realization Process / 2012-2014
