7

If I destroy myself before you do, am I the winner?

what was Psicosi?

Psicosi was the name I gave to my residency at Rifrazioni rather than any particular performance.

Though this concept may have been lost in translation I did perform twice under the banner of Psicosi and from this have effectively developed a new work which will act as a counterpoint to Erosion.

Going forward from this I would like to perform the two pieces together in order to bring this relationship to the fore.

It is at this point that I would like to thank all at Rifrazioni, especially Isabella Di Cola & Stefano Rana as well as Helen Spackman of Leibniz that aided in the creation of the work at Villa di Nerone in Anzio, Italy.

While at present it remains unnamed I feel a connection to the conception of 'purification' within the work and see the connection to 'Erosion' to be appropriate in this context.

I was also lucky enough to develop the concept for a new live art installation, which while I was unable to perform as part of rifrazioni I would like to express my gratitude to Ernst Fischer for lending an ear to my sporadic ponderings.

I hope to soon post documentation of the work soon.

6

If you chase something,
To get something
Then something else,
Will end up chasing you.

Pscoisi at Rifrrazioni

One of the founding figures of Butoh, Kazuo Ohno once said, "The scars on your body will scab over and heal in time. As for the scars on your mind, if you accept and endure them, the experiences will bring you both pleasure and sorrow."

Psicosi is a new work that seeks to develop upon previous investigations by the artist Thomas John Bacon that question the conception of 'being' and the multiplicity of existence: "I've lost a part of myself somewhere and I cannot find it. When one has gone into one's self so far, what will bring you back?" Psicosi is not a journey - it is a state. Figures drift past you everyday - we are surrounded at times and yet constantly alone. In the company of the self - what does one have left when that starts to erode?

The erosion of the self was a theme recently explored by the artist in its relationship to Human Rights and the intimate effect that one individual may have upon another. Psicosi builds upon this in a far more personal manner in an attempt to discover the muted 'self,' thus becoming an intimate journey into the artist's own self destruction and depression.

"Two sides to my self, you make me betray myself."

Putting his body at the centre of his work, Thomas uses a minimalistic structure, Butoh based based methods of movement & focus, and a respect for the symbiosis between body and space to explore these themes. The piece that physically pushes the body to go beyond the norm either via the spectacle of visceral torture or in a more unlikely mundane sense is amazing; pushing the concept of ‘being’ via studies of minutiae to extreme points of purgatory in a durational performance or via an intense short piece of performance art, is at the heart of his current body of work and for Thomas, he feels that it facilitates his questions between the existence of self and its relationship to environment through this detailed examination of being.

5

I do not seek catharsis.

Rifrazioni 2009

Thomas John Bacon will join a wealth of international talent at the the Rifrazioni Festival in Italy from next week. For more information please click HERE