Disrupting the skin-ego: See-sickness and the real in the flagellation of a Virgin

Abstract

There is no limit more primal than skin. We can think of all borders, walls and body coverings as attempts to extend and protect the first, most vulnerable limit of our bodies. As much as we try to protect our skin, we also often work to remove boundaries so that we can open ourselves to contact and create intimacy. Skin is that horizon from which we each live the relationship with ourselves, others and the world around us. Each of us live our skin differently-by clothing it, revealing it, decorating it, inscribing it, replenishing it, wounding it or being wounded through it. Skin is fundamental to our identities.