When I Put My Hands on Your Body

1989 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

4:09 minutes

Marion Scemama, David Wojnarowicz

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Political artist, painter, writer, performer, photographer, David Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992 in New York City, was one of the leading figures of the New York Downtown artistic scene of the 80s. His use of image, language and collage generated a new method of idea communication. The series of five videos Collaborative Film Collection made in collaboration with Marion Scemama in 1989 is emblematic of his artistic practice, it unfolds through performance, films, photographs, texts and paintings. Taking a highly subjective point of departure he shares poetic and moving moments, moving through the material until his voice achieves a universal dimension. Music: Ben Neill. Actors: Paul Smith and David Wojnarowicz.

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Marion Scemama is a French photographer and filmmaker. She and Wojnarowicz met in 1984 in New York while on an assignment for ICI, the two became close friends and went on to collaborate on multiple works. Often their projects would combine his imagery with her photographs or they would frequently pose for one another. When Rosa von Praunheim asked Wojnarowicz to be in the film Silence=Death , Scemama helped him to develop new material and repurpose footage from his earlier work A Fire in My Belly . Scemama travelled the length of the country with Wojnarowicz and assisted him in his studio throughout 1989. David Wojnarowicz, was a major figure in the New York City art scene of the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. Throughout his, Wojnarowicz accumulated raw images, sounds, memories and lived experiences, reworking them through fiction, poetry, memoirs, painting, photography, installation, sculpture, film and performance. Wojnarowicz is remembered for his bitingly political work, he was combative in his address of issues of poverty, abuse of power, blind nationalism, greed, homophobia and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. His artworks are part of institutional collections the world over and a major retrospective of his work has been organized since his death.

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Colors:

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• activism.n.01
• interdisciplinary.a.01
• politics.n.05
• collage.n.02
• semiotics.n.01