 |
 |
|
|
Sergio Fonseca. Cowboys a la Michael, de la serie Estríper: Una alegoría de la constante elaboración identitaria
Guadalajara, 2013
Video digital
Sergio Fonseca. Turn Around, de la serie Estríper: Una alegoría de la constante elaboración identitaria
Guadalajara, 2013
Video digital
Sergio Fonseca. Rompimiento_03, de la serie Estríper: Una alegoría de la constante elaboración identitaria
Tijuana, 2012
Video digital
Sergio Fonseca. La dispersión del yo, de la serie Estríper: Una alegoría de la constante elaboración identitaria
Guadalajara, 2014
Video digital
Sergio Fonseca. Girls just wanna have fun, de la serie Estríper: Una alegoría de la constante elaboración identitaria
Monterrey, 2013
Video digital
My reason for wanting to become a stripper was specific rather than conventional: I wanted to make an art project. It did not take long for me to realize that, for genetic reasons, this would be more or less impossible: I definitely did not have the stereotypical build and height. That's when I decided the project was a failure, and that I should talk about it from that perspective.
According to sociologist Erving Goffman's theory of dramaturgical analysis, we all play parts or have particular ways of behaving in a given setting. This also implies that a hierarchy is needed to manage the relevance of roles in a given setting—the establishment. The territory where there is a series of implicit rules of behavior. Thus, we can outline three categories in social theater: the actor, the public and the set.
But what happens when there is a failure in one or more points in this relationship? Goffman called this an "embarrassing situation": when the behavioral system breaks down, the plan goes off-course and the result is an unexpected, out-of-place situation for the actor.
What Goffman overlooked is the actor's ability to generate this breakdown consciously. To subject him- or herself to embarrassment or to voluntarily play multiple roles, to switch between them, to challenge the criteria of their performance, to intrude upon the establishment by playing the role of an outcast.
In my videos and photographs, polymorphism is an active force that questions and challenges definitive roles. At the same time it is an allegory for what Goffman called the "mask": a role consciously changed due to the setting.
Whether in a gallery or in a strip joint in Tijuana, the establishment is merely accidental and the role is a type of coercion. All we have left to do is to transform ourselves and act, revealing what Goffman's dramaturgical analysis calls the "self": what lies behind the mask and only appears at night, in private. But here there is no self, or to be more exact, the self is the action of changing masks, constant change: being alone is just one more mask in my repertoire.
→ Read more
→ Bio
Guadalajara, 1987. Studied communications at the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente and has participated in various photography workshops. His work has been featured in group shows such as Creación en movimiento in Veracruz and Transición in Guadalajara. In 2013 his solo show Stripper Project was presented at the Sala Veinte22 gallery in Guadalajara. He has received the Fonca's Jóvenes Creadores grant (2012-13) and the Pecda's Jóvenes Creadores grant (2011-12).