Bettina Rheims
The Gender Studies
“or how did this project come about
Over a year ago, we got a request from “Candy magazine”, an yearly publication on transexuality and drag, to publish once again, and twenty years later, the “Modern Lovers” and “Les Espionnes”. A body of work on androginy and transgender shot during the hardest times of aids.
It gave me the idea instead to check, If things were different today in the world of gender, from the eighties.
We opened a Facebook profile, showing a few of these early pictures (among them the first image Kate Moss ever shot) with a message encouraging people who felt “different” to get in touch with the Studio.
I “Skyped” with youg boys and girls from all over the world, they told me the most beautiful stories about their lives.
There was nothing pathetic or sad in their stories, just a feeling of being different.
A lot of them knew from childhood, that they were born in the wrong body and had decided, many with the help of their parents, to correct the original mistake.
But what struck me as being completely new, were the ones who refused to choose between the two options, and had decided to live using both identities. Depending on the day, the mood; why not have it all ? – In Australia, last autumn, for the first time, someone got the mention “X” on his/her passport, recognizing for the very first time the existance of a “third sex” –
While we were “Skyping”, I got taken away by their voices, and the words they used.
Voices that cannot be desguised very long, that broke during our conversations, going back to their original nature.
Accents from everywhere, speaking english / french / spanish, talking about magic and witches and god fairies, and dreams of princess.
I had 27 of them come to the studio from all over the world, and working together with a great sound artist, Frédéric Sanchez, we recorded them in the studio right after the shooting. I also worked very closely with my friend, and wonderful designer Jean Colonna who helped to glorify these new “Modern Lovers”.
It was amazing.
So the installation will be
A large square / rectangle room.
These portraits looking at the viewer.
A sound installation going around, in an hypnotic way, following the viewer as he is lingering through the exhibition.
But if you stand in the middle of the room, you will be able to listen to the voice of the new third sex !”
