Barnabé Masson
About

Red bull, freedom...

I grew up watching Jackass videos, montages of falls and promotions of extreme sports. Risk-taking activities, sometimes self-harm, were at the forefront of the creation of my masculine mythology. Injuries and impressive successes were seen as key to earning the respect of my peers. The social and health privilege in which I grew up allowed me to feel a kind of distance, and almost contempt, for my own body. Any injury or ills seemed to be fixable by science. Even today, in sport, I put myself in danger without really being afraid of the consequences. Twice I almost lost my life. The most serious accident resulted in extensive medical care. My right leg is now impaired. While learning to live with the chronic pain that this accident has left me with, pain has blurred the line between my body and my soul. It brought me back to my body, this body I had never really considered. In my urban-capitalist context where the affect feels neglected in favour of the intellect, daily pain has shattered the scientific vision of the world that my culture taught me. I experienced this physical feeling as an emotion that enabled me to destroy the logical approach I had to my own body. This work attempts to engage discussion on several questions. Can risk-taking activities be considered a form of self- mutilation? What is the link between these activities, masculinity and privilege? What is our relationship to pain in our urban and capitalist environment? My experience with masculinity has often been linked to the act of staging myself in various impressive ‘‘wannabe’’ actions. That’s what I’m doing in this video, putting myself on stage to develop my own masculine mythology by becoming a warrior, while exploring my relationship with my body and pain.

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