Some time ago, Monika Mamzeta announced a tattoo competition in the place of the breast entitled: “Itsy-bitsy CANCER… leaves you with a SCAR”. My project submitted to the competition was awarded and was featured in the MAKEOVER film. The film was presented in Szczecin’s TRAFO, where the “…I love you too” exhibition of Monika Mamzeta was held.
I have prepared four different painting versions. A few words about my project: J. Derrida wrote that any research on the past is, in fact, work on the future. With my proposal, I wanted to refer to my experience. After giving birth to my son, when the worst time was beyond us, I wanted to sum up the time of hard experiences with my creative work. I wasn’t in able to tell about it with a series of pictures, or a story that my friend encouraged me to do. I needed something shorter, which it will remind me of hard times but it will keep me going.
I have paraphrased Magritte’s text “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.”. On the back of the stretcher bars, where I always sign the picture, I put my paraphrase that is: “Ceci n’est pas ma peinture, c’est mon poème” (This is not my painting, this is my poem). I thought that I would like to convey the idea of going forward to Monika Mamzeta, by closing her experiences in a sentence.
There are 3 variants of this one sentence and four pictorial versions.
Ceci n’est pas ma poitrine, c’est mon histoire.
This is not my bust, this is my story – in the sense of a story about me.
Ceci n’est pas un sein, c’est mon destin.
Version 2 has a rhyme, it means: This is not my breast, this is my fate (destiny). Here I rhyme with the title of the project. But I use one breast (for the sake of rhyme) .
Ceci n’est pas une poitrine, de mon âme une vitrine.
These aren’t my breasts, this is my story. Version 3 – poetic, it is also rhyme and the words say: This is not a bust, but a mirror of my soul.
