Birth of Venus. Neurenic

Neurenika. Narodziny Wenus (2006-7) by Barbara Konopka (born in 1965) is a monumental colour photograph made on metallic paper using the laser exposure technique, which enables achieving the highest quality of image. The surface of the photograph is covered with a transparent plexiglass, which further boosts the impression of depth and sharpness of the image. The final shape of the work came to be as a result of dozens of hours of digital image processing using software, which enabled the artist to achieve the effect of multiplying two characters depicted in different roles. The scene is a clear reference to one of the most famous masterpieces of the early Italian Renaissance – the Birth of Venus by Sandro Boticcelli. Konopka reflects the pattern of this composition, as well as the positioning and gestures of the characters. Like in the source material, the artist depicts the scene of the birth of the Roman goddess. However, Konopka’s Venus, separated from Boticelli’s Venus by more than 500 years, is a product of different times and different consciousness. She is the goddess of the digital age, of the growing possibilities of bioengineering and medicine, of the openness to modification of the world and human bodies, to adjustments and changes in identity, including gender identity. The eponymous Neurenika – contemporary Venus – is a person undergoing a sex reassignment surgery. She is a real character, whom Konopka accompanied with a camera throughout the process of transformation towards femininity, and who became her muse and co-author of many subsequent projects. As the artist wrote: For me, the process was an extreme human experience, which taught me a lot about tolerance, understanding and human friendship rising above gender divides. Neurenika is a gesture of solidarity and an expression of affirmation of the emerging new identity, no matter how bizarre and controversial.

Magdalena Lewoc