Presented for the first time at the 2014 Dakar Biennale, the Transracialismo project is a review of the concept of race from a current and universal point of view, which generates an empirical and scientific demonstration of the invalidity that this term entails.

 

Skin extractions from different racial models were performed to subsequently generate artificial tissues from the extracted cells. The result: the biological structural characteristics of these tissues are identical to each other and there are no appearance traits such as color or texture.

 

The skin here is used as a metaphorical element that, through Art, claims equality based on the difference of the cultural traumas that each one of us brings with us.

 

 

 

Transracialism. Socio-epidermal analysis

marchesi

 

Within the human peculiarities appears the common tendency, for various reasons, to try to emulate the characteristics of the race to which one does not belong. This is manifested culturally  in a more obvious way in the color of the skin and the appearance of the hair, resulting in the existence and use  of both artificial and natural methods for transform appearance. The sun and cosmetics.

 

Let's not forget that the cosmetics industry has different objectives depending on the market share it finds, regardless of the consequences, covering a large number of applications. But in this case we will focus on the differences depending on the  color of the skin for which it is created; lightening in Africa and tanning in Europe.

 

It is a contradiction that one of the great evils of humanity, racism, has the consequence that, in the attempt to resemble the diverse, one tends gregariously towards uniformity. The ethical implications, the prejudices, the historical blemishes, will appear in this project and will be treated with the maximum scientific rigor that its social consequences allow.

 

It was after living together and staying in a country in Black Africa that my interest in racial considerations awoke in me, the tendencies of people to imitate the characteristics of other races and the personal need to learn to be the differently, as I have come to embark on the realization of this investigation.

 

I have learned a lot along the way about a subject, racism, about which I thought everything was said. I have come across an infinite number of racist versions and sentiments and I have read various, and not always reasonable, positions on the subject. From the elimination of the word race, as applicable to the human being, to its principles in the use of its most repugnant version at the time of colonization.

 

There are currently movements and trends that return to using the excuse of differences in the appearance of people as a way of classifying and therefore, of differentiation, for the location of people within a social status with superiors and inferiors. These attitudes are gaining strength in the Western world, repeating the not so distant history of the shameful times that justified racism. Similarly, in the Eastern world,  there is a feeling of rejection towards everything that is not one's own, which even goes as far as the intention of destroying what is different. It is also true that this theme remains even in small societies where it is,  no longer race  if not ethnicity, that makes the difference and the feeling of rejection.

 

It is not by avoiding, hiding or using euphemisms, how we learn, solve or shed light on important issues that affect us all. This is why I consider it opportune to carry out this project in which, in addition to raising ethical questions, scientific answers are given that support the position, irrefutable for me, that equality can only be achieved from diversity, since Said by Levi Strauss in his "Essay Race and Culture".

 

So far, alterations have already been made to black and white models  through cosmetics, lightening black and darkening white; From these alterations, skin samples have been taken from the treated parts and from the untreated parts, generating four cultures of four artificial skins that are finally scientifically proven to be biologically equal. These four samples, once dehydrated, are presented in a steel box, specially illuminated, called "SKIN CARRIER". Likewise, photographs of these models have been taken and images have been combined, both microscopic, detailed, and general, which illustrate and accompany the skin cultures, making up this exhibition.

 

What is expressed in the catalog in this phase of the project, in which the referred elements are appreciated, supports the continuity of the project in the following direction, which will be the next step in this experience: the creation of a large artificial leather wafer, made up of cells donated by individuals of as many races as possible, ultimately creating "the body of humanity."

 

As a consequence of the experience carried out and the manifestation of the deep social implications that still persist in the definition and understanding, and even elimination of the concept of race, the continuation of the project is proposed, seeking through the experience of the scientific procedure, to express poetically in living cells, the uniqueness and diversity of humanity as structurally essential elements for the equality of the human being and of each and every one of its individuals.

 

It must be taken into account that in this project, the work process goes through obtaining skin donors who understand and share the objective of the project, then going through a long scientific procedure in which the cells have to be isolated, cultivated and keep them.

For all  this scientific process we have counted on Jesús Espada as an indispensable collaborator in the part, both conceptual and technical. I want to thank you for your intense and disinterested disposition, since without your  knowledge and without the resources of your laboratory and your team (Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research, Ramón y Cajal Hospital and Biomedical Research Institute " Alberto Sols" CSIC- Autonomous University of Madrid), this project would have been unfeasible.

 

Finally, I would like to resort to my artistic career, focused on the growing relationship between art and science, as a way of expression through this research. The collaboration that will take place between art and science in the development of this project is especially important, to the extent that the work will be valued and carried out from different modes of conceptualization, which I hope will finally serve to lay the foundations. of the concretion of a different one, necessary for the new conception of knowledge of the XXI century.

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