Shadow Blender

(2017)4h

TIME, SPACE, NOTHING.

The Transcendent Act: Defining Shadow Blender

Shadow Blender stands apart in contemporary performance art. This work bars the audience and artist from comfort zones, challenging all present to enter a realm of radical honesty. Nakedness is at the core of its language. Here, the body is not spectacle. Instead, it becomes a portal—a direct line to inner territories unspoken and unseen.​

Every moment is defined by presence: time, space, and nothingness intertwine. The artist isn’t merely performing. He becomes what he maps, moving through a psychic landscape where transformation is possible but not guaranteed. The title “Shadow Blender” references Jungian psychology, digital geometry, and a delicate act of integration.​

Nudity as Sacred Architecture


In Shadow Blender, nudity is the chosen architecture. There’s nothing superficial or exhibitionist here. The artist’s bare body holds spiritual and psychological weight. Nudity functions as a tool for radical honesty, a necessary stripping away of the ego’s mask.​

This exposure creates vulnerability, but paradoxically, it becomes intrinsic strength. The performance asks both artist and audience to leave behind cultural self-images and embrace something more universal. With the audience as witness, the naked body becomes a site not just for performance but for spiritual repair and psychic healing.

Dismantling the Persona: A Journey Beyond Masks


Shadow Blender’s drive is to confront and dissolve the social facade—the Persona. Every society teaches us to wear masks. Naked performance art, in this context, dismantles these masks with relentless clarity.​

This encounter between Ego and Shadow is not easy. The naked state is raw and uncompromising. It becomes the only medium that forces a true blend: a confrontation with inner darkness, followed by a hopeful integration. Audiences witness a journey that exposes and transforms what is often rejected within us.

The Power of Duration: Four Hours of Transformation


Shadow Blender is more than a moment; it is a durational test. Four hours of sustained body art strain the artist to his limits. The extended time changes everything—it is not just a container, but an engine for transformation.​

Stamina wanes; gestures become subconscious. This erosion of conscious control reveals authentic movement rooted in desire and vulnerability. As exhaustion builds, the performer’s subconscious surfaces. The duration is a ritual—it grinds down the ego, clearing space for true self-integration.

Mapping the Shadow: Jungian Integration in Action


Carl Jung’s shadow looms large in Shadow Blender. The shadow—our hidden, often unwanted self—remains a blind spot in daily life. When ignored, it directs fate from behind the scenes.​

This performance merges the “Shadow” with the conscious “Self.” The blending process is both psychological and artistic. Instead of erasing darkness, the artist integrates it, transforming latent energy into conscious power. This act demonstrates that healing begins only when we face, accept, and use what was once suppressed.

Chiaroscuro: Visual Metaphors of Light and Dark


Light and shadow sculpt the atmosphere throughout the performance. Borrowing from chiaroscuro traditions, the dance between illuminated skin and darkened space externalizes inner struggle.​

As time passes, light shifts and softness diffuses stark contrasts. The nude body is mapped by changing shadows, symbolizing the gradual synthesis of the known and unknown parts of self. Every gesture, every flicker of light, becomes an embodied metaphor for integration—a choreography of healing.

Gestural Writing: Movement as Psychic Expression


Shadow Blender’s movements serve as a new form of writing. Each gesture, each sequence, translates subconscious fantasies into visible reality. The body reflects history, desire, and lived experience.​

Physicality meets internal rhythm, allowing buried material to emerge. What unfolds on stage is more than just dance—it is a series of living metaphors reflecting our deepest patterns. The artwork projects these internal dramas onto the collective psyche, offering shared healing by example.

Diffusion and Control: The Art of Blending


The “Blender” in Shadow Blender invokes aesthetics, both digital and tactile. In the world of makeup and digital rendering, blending softens and diffuses boundaries. The artist’s movements mirror this technique—delicate, conscious, never striving for the total elimination of the shadow.​

The process insists on both acceptance and precision. True blending does not annihilate difference; it integrates it into wholeness. Every action in the performance demonstrates the tension between surrender and control, crafting a balanced space where inner healing can happen.

Joining the Avant-Garde Canon: Endurance in Body Art


Shadow Blender occupies a proud place in the lineage of 1970s body art. Here, like Abramović and other pioneers, extreme physical presence and duration are used to transform both performer and viewer.​

Rejecting easy consumption, the work values the unpredictable process of self-discovery. The body is not just mapmaker, but also territory. The journey becomes the artwork, turning the entire performance space into a living archive of transformation.

Rituals of Transformation: Integrating the Shadow


At its core, Shadow Blender is a spiritual ritual. The naked performance visualizes supreme meaning, reconnecting artist and audience with the soul. Bridging Asian heritage with European avant-garde philosophy, the piece honors cross-cultural approaches to self-discovery.​

By charting the difficult passage from internal conflict to integration, Shadow Blender models ethical responsibility and artistic rigor. The result is nothing less than psychic wholeness—an indelible affirmation of vulnerability, acceptance, and spiritual awakening through the naked body.

G12HUB and PerformanceHUB are incredibly excited to present the TIME, SPACE, NOTHING workshop, a magnificent nine-day intensive program designed for emerging artists to perfect their craft. This awe-inspiring event, headlined by world-renowned contemporary artist, Franko B, is set to be a truly extraordinary experience for the 12 talented artists hand-picked from across the globe. Under the guidance of Franko B, participants will engage in a challenging and immersive process that will push them to their creative limits. The program will culminate in a spectacular series of performances, which will be held on the event’s opening day, September 1st, 2017, from 3 PM to 7 PM. Notably, it’s essential to mention that some of the performances may contain adult themes, and hence, unsuitable for children under 15 years of age unless under strict parental or guardian supervision. Franko B is a highly respected and celebrated artist whose works have been displayed in esteemed institutions such as the Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, and South London Gallery. He is also a professor of Sculpture at l’Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino in Italy, and a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London and Northampton University. If you’re passionate about true creative talent in action, make sure not to miss out on this exhilarating venture!

Performances of 12 international artists that participated in a 9 days-long intensive/full immersion performance with Franko B in Magacin Macura.

Philemon Mukarno, Bruno Camargo, Vittorio Campanella, Shola Cole, Sara Kostić, Manuel López García, Jacopo Mandich, Ivana Ranisavljević, Michele Rava, Márton Emil Tóth, Albert Smith, Cristiana Zeta Rolla.

Philemon Mukarno Performance Shadow Blender(2017)4h Magacin Macura, Stari Banovci, Serbia
Philemon Mukarno Performance Shadow Blender(2017)4h Magacin Macura, Stari Banovci, Serbia
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