Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016

Ivana Bašić’s SOMA is a work that can appear in countless manifestations. The project began with the making of a 3D scan of Bašić’s body, which can be purchased by anyone and exists in an unlimited number of copies. Each owner can then use or manipulate it in any way they choose, as long as the artist is informed. It can also be realized in the future in formats not yet invented.

Here, Bašić herself has executed the project, taking control of her own body, which appears both as a sculpture and as a digital animation whose impossible movements evoke gymnastics or dance. Contrasting the immateriality of the digital body with the weight of its corporeal counterpart, Bašić’s uncanny, androgynous forms suggest the cyborg’s bionic abilities, taking on warped shapes that have a traumatic quality. In opening up the possibility for multiple realizations and identities Bašić both gives up control of her body and grants it a kind of limitless power.