The body is a carrier of
messages. Kant's theory in
a contemporary point of view.
Luiz Roque, República, 2020, installation view
The human being's perception of the world, nature and the others is driven by imagination, affection and memory. All of this goes through aesthetic sensitivity. Throughout Western history, the concept of aesthetics and beauty has been developed from a Eurocentric point of view. From a Greek perfectionism, to the concept of the beautiful Renaissance, to the subjectivity of modernism, to a non-Dada art. There is a deterministic essence in the aesthetics of the West, which has generated taboos that we still face nowadays.
Venus of Urbino, Ticiano, 1538.
It was during the Age of Enlightenment that the philosopher Kant analyzed the judgment of perception between subject and object, and argued that beauty is in the middle between sensations and reason. In other words, even before we can judge an image, this feeling is already mediated by the ideas we learn from the society.
THE WORD “AESTHETICS” COMES FROM THE GREEK “AISTHESIS”, WHICH MEANS THE “FACULTY OF FEELING”.
Kant's theory applies to many contemporary taboos. Even the understanding that women have of their own bodies is part of this logic. Feminism, for instance, as much as it has been discussed over the decades, it was through the networks, and the interaction with more images of free bodies, that questioning has become more present. The image triggered this collective process.
That kind of tension made @ex_miss_febem_, an avatar created by artist Aleta Valente, to become increasingly popular on Instagram by posting images that confront female stereotypes. Where does such interest from the public in the character's feed come from? The profile could very well be real, of a woman who subverted the order and made her life, however challenging it may be, in a predictable performance among Instagram profiles.
@ex_miss_febem_
The @ex_miss_febem_ showed up yearning her own popular imagination for a new female image, which now measures her own body and exposes reality without shame. Women like Aleta have made out of their bodies and their performance, a new message.
@ex_miss_febem_
“ 'A kind of artist' from the south zone performing poverty, trapped forever inside her own performance” replied Aleta to a prosecuting comment written about her on the internet.
Be the meme about abortion, or the photo of a woman’s period, in other words, the image was the tool to create records that access our field of ideas. Returning to Kant's theory, these ideas have the power to change the feeling we have when we see the female body free.
CULTURE IS A MODERN ORGANIZATION THAT CREATES AND MANAGES ITSELF.
The image has increasingly become a tool in this operation. Current aesthetes should think about the origin of their beliefs/preferences and concepts, and consider some thoughts when creating the sensitive experience of an image. The aesthetics of the future needs to create new sensations that are born from an unexpected repertoire.
