Imaco

The Vulnerability of Detachment

Performance art often dares to touch the raw edges of human experience. The Imaginary Art Collective (IMACO), hosted at WORM Rotterdam, invites us into that fragile space where possession and release meet. Philemon Mukarno’s piece stands at the core of this exploration. His performance transforms the act of letting go into a spiritual revelation. Through symbolic nudity, he strips not only his body but also his artistic identity. By shedding layers of physical and emotional protection, Mukarno embodies art in its purest, most unadorned form. The nakedness becomes a metaphor for truth—one that exposes rather than conceals.

The Performer as a Living Conduit

In IMACO’s extraordinary format, artists could not touch one another; instead, they passed objects conceptually, through performance alone. This detachment elevated the performer’s body to a sacred conduit—an entity bridging past creation and future interpretation. For Mukarno, this physical mediation mirrors his lifelong inquiry into the spiritual dimension of sound, silence, and exposure. Nudity here is not objectification but transformation. It is the artist’s way of proclaiming that creativity survives only when the vessel—the body—embraces its vulnerability. Through his naked presence, Mukarno channels energy between material and metaphysical realms, making the audience conscious of the fragility that defines all art.

Unveiling the Soul of the Machine

For IMACO Episode 6, Mukarno chose an object of rare intimacy: his first computer. Within this device lived years of compositions, ideas, and digital memory. Yet, instead of preserving it, he prepared it for destruction. In this symbolic act, the machine becomes a body—an extension of the artist’s own flesh. To destroy it means to perform a rebirth. The naked performer confronting his technological double reveals profound vulnerability. He detaches from the illusion of permanence and reclaims the sacred immateriality of music. This destruction is not violence but liberation, echoing the eternal dialogue between creation and disappearance.

Ritual of Creative Rebirth

When Mukarno shatters the machine, he shatters dependency itself. The fragments testify to transformation, not death. In that moment, the naked composer becomes both priest and witness of his own rebirth. The act aligns with ancient rituals in which shedding material layers symbolizes purification. By smashing his digital past, Mukarno affirms that art does not live in matter but in spirit. His nudity underscores this truth—it is both exposure and transcendence. What remains after the breaking is not an object but presence: the timeless resonance of creative essence unbound by technology or form.

The Sacred Architecture of Nudity

In both philosophy and practice, Mukarno reclaims the naked body as sacred architecture. His performances dismantle cultural taboos that reduce nudity to spectacle. Instead, the exposed form becomes a truth-telling instrument. Each movement and gesture becomes an articulation of internal process, a silent dialogue between vulnerability and awareness. The audience does not view a body; it witnesses consciousness in its most direct expression. This profound honesty counters modern detachment, reminding us that creative energy is inseparable from the human form that channels it. Through this nakedness, Mukarno constructs a bridge between the physical and the divine.

The Shadowbody and the Path to Freedom

Mukarno’s concept of the Shadowbody deepens the meaning of this exposure. The Shadowbody embraces the darker, unspoken dimensions of human existence. Within that realm, vulnerability becomes strength. By engaging the body’s unfiltered impulses, his performances reveal what is buried beneath civilized behavior—fear, grief, and transcendence. The destruction of his computer mirrors an inner process: the letting go of dependency, ego, and identity. Through this dual ritual—of breaking and exposure—Mukarno achieves what he calls spiritual repair. The naked artist becomes a vessel of truth, proving that to be bare is to be free.

Reimagining Performance in the Digital Age

Mukarno’s act of artistic sacrifice challenges the digital dependency of contemporary culture. In an era obsessed with archiving and replication, he risks oblivion to preserve authenticity. The broken machine symbolizes the collapse of technological faith, while the naked body declares survival through flesh and spirit. His performance argues that art must remain alive, unrecorded, and unrepeatable. It calls for an art rooted not in storage but in memory—an art that breathes, expires, and revives within each viewer’s consciousness.

A Legacy of Courage and Vulnerability

Through *IMACO: The Art of Letting Go*, Philemon Mukarno redefined the relationship between body, object, and soul. His approach merges academic precision, Asian spirituality, and Butoh-inspired physical depth. The result transcends performance—it becomes a rite of passage for both artist and audience. By uniting destruction and nudity, violence and tenderness, Mukarno reveals the ultimate paradox of creation: that only through vulnerability can one achieve true artistic freedom. His work stands as a testament to the future of performance art—where the body, stripped of everything but awareness, becomes the sacred instrument of rebirth.