Who have we let decide which parts of our bodies we should like or dislike? How often do we feel the need to fix bits and pieces of ourselves that were never really broken in the first place?
This film guides us to explore the ideas we have about beauty and how it relates to human bodies—especially women’s. What does it take to shake the seemingly solid ground of truths we’ve been told about what beauty is and isn’t?
We hope to remind you of a time when the negative opinions you have about your body—the skin that you live in—were not yet yours.
‘what runs in marble’s veins’ is a response to the present day’s obsession with perfection, particularly when it comes to our skin and our bodies. Leonore and Teun offer a gentler perspective. In an attempt to honor and respect all human bodies, they aim to, at the very least, neutralize how we see the parts of our bodies we tend to wish away.
We’ve learned to be critical towards our appearance. As a prompt to reflect on how easily we notice faults in the mirror, and how readily we compare ourselves with professionally-doctored images of people we are shown through our screens, this project hopes to push society in the opposite direction. Through intimate visuals and a personal narrative, Leonore and Teun hope to inspire a counterintuitive culture of acceptance, appreciation and admiration of the details that uniquely decorate human bodies.
Léonore Bienert (@leonorebienert) is a Brussels-based visual artist who graduated from KASK School of Arts in Gent, Belgium. Intimacy is a red thread in her work; it is what her work is intended to represent as it is how she experiences everyday life. It translates itself into projects like her series of paintings ‘Period Boobs’, which explores the intimate relationship between a woman and her body.
Teun Valk (@belanda.goreng) is a Dutch all-around creative with an extensive background in videography and branding, and a deeper focus on fashion. He is based in both Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Indonesia, a place where he had spent much of his early adulthood, which shaped him a lot as a creative.
In early 2022, Leonore invited Teun to visualise her artistry onto real bodies. Together with a small team they shot this film in Xlless, Brussels in January and have been working closely to complete it ever since.
(Credits)
Concept – Léonore Bienert
Director, Camera, Edit – Teun Valk
Featuring – Agathe, Juliette & Leonore
Copywrite – Shirinnada Nurrazak
