Maintenant #38: Volya Hapeyeva
The predominant hierarchy is based on the binary opposition where everything is marked either as positive (norm) or negative (pathology). The dichotomic attitude toward the body can be changed through the overcoming of the binary concept of “the reason – the body” and thus it is possible to review the attitude to men’s and women’s bodies. Body practices are means of communication both with our own body and the surrounding community. Radical body modifications often represent the mixture of traditional societies’ practices, sado-masochistic practices and performance art elements… Different reasons make some body practices socially accepted (piercing, tattooing) and the others are deemed and referred to as deviations and pathology (skin cutting, scarification)… The topics in which I take a particular interest are strongly connected to such terms and norm and pathology, individual freedom and right to self-expression, self-determination.
In the 38th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Belarussian poet Volya Hapeyeva.
Seven Poems
as long as you forget my name
day by day one letter at a time
like no other body
will i lie
under the stretched electricity wires
on the edges
of an all forgiving power plant
and like no other bird
grasping for the naked wires
under your left eye
the muscle contracting
to find out
what an instant
really is
By Volya Hapeyeva.