Tim Steiner has an elaborate tattoo on his back that was designed by a well-known artist.
When you die,your skin will be framed and guindará in a wall alongside other works from the personal collection of a German interested in the arts.
But until that time comes, Steiner spends his days sitting in galleries with the torso exposed.
“The art piece is on my back, I am just the person who carries it”, said the man of 40 years, who worked in a tattoo shop in Zurich, a swiss city.
a decade Ago, his girlfriend at that time she met a belgian artist named Wim Delvoye, who became known for the controversial work of tattooing pigs.
Delvoye told the ex-girlfriend of Steiner that he was trying to get a person who was willing to become a canvas for human for a new project, and asked if I knew of someone who might be interested.
“She called me, and I, without thinking much, I told him that I would like to do,” recalls Steiner.
the author of The tattoo became known for his work on pigs.
maximum Expression of art
Two years after this incident, and after spending 40 hours lying on a stretcher to the completion of the tattoo, the design covering his entire back.
Is a virgin on the head has a skull mexican style, with rays of light around. Has swallows flying around, in addition to red and blue roses.
In the lower part of the back there are two fish chinese-style swimming among lotus flowers with a couple of kids. The artist’s signature is on the right.
“To me is the maximum expression of art”, says Steiner.
And he added: “those Who perform tattoos are amazing performers that have never been accepted in the world of modern art. Painting on a canvas is one thing, but to do so with needles in the skin, is another story.”
The work is called TIM and was sold for US$ 160,000 in the collector of German art Rik Reinking in 2008.
Steiner received a third of that amount.
“My skin belongs to Reinking. My back is to the canvas, I’m just the time frame,” says Steiner.
And added: “those Who do tattoos are amazing performers that have never been accepted in the world of modern art. Paint on a canvas is one thing, but to do so with needles in the skin, is another story.”
The work is called TIM and was sold for$ 160.000 the collector of German art Rik Reinking in 2008.
Steiner received a third of that amount.
“My skin belongs to Reinking. the My back is to the canvas, I’m just the temporary framework,” says Steiner.
To finish the tattoo took 40 hours of work.
Dispute
The agreement stipulates that, when Steiner dies, the skin of your back will be framed permanently to be exposed on the personal collection of Reinking.
“The term horrible is relative,” suggests Steiner, referring to those who think that the idea is macabre.
“it Is a concept that is very old -more – present in the history of the tattoo in japanese, has been done many times. If it is framed well and looks nice, I think that is not such a bad idea.”
This aspect of the project tends to generate an intense debate.
“Always becomes a great topic of analysis, the opinions of others about it tend to be interesting,” says Steiner.
And he continues: “To the people or you love the idea or believe that it is too extreme, are outraged, and say that it goes against human rights. Speak even of prostitution or slavery.”
According to another of the points of the contract, Steiner must display the tattoo in a gallery at least three times a year.
The longest exposure in which he participated Steiner lasted a year and has just completed.
Challenges artistic
His first exhibition took place in Zurich in 2006, when the tattoo had not been terminated.
last year was the tenth anniversary of that occasion, just when I was half-way through the presentation more long in which he has participated so far: a full year at the Museum of Ancient and Modern Art (Mona, for its acronym in English) in Hobart, Tasmania.
The exhibition, in which he worked five hours a day, six days a week, closed on Tuesday of last week.
“Sit in your desk for 15 minutes with legs hanging of the edge of the table, back straight and hands on knees. It is difficult,” says.
And added: “I Did this by 1,500 hours. By far, the most intense experience of my life. My mood changed throughout the day, sometimes it was wonderful, others terrible, he was always in a state of alert”.
The only thing that separates Steiner of visitors to the galleries in which it has been is a line on the floor, that several of them have been crossed.
“I have touched, I have taken air, I have shouted, pushed and even spat on. Frequently, it has become a circus. But that has not happened on this occasion, a miracle,” says the man.
The work of Delvoye has exhibited at the Louvre.
PLACES IN THE BACK OF TIM STEINER HAS BEEN EXPOSED to
2006: Gallery De Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland
2008: Farm Art, Fair of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
2008/2009: ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
2009: University Rathaus and Leuphana, Lüneburg, Germany
2010/2011: Kunsthalle, Osnabruck, Germany, and Robilant &Voena, London, Uk
2011/2012: Mona, Tasmania
2012: Area Contemporary, Bern, Switzerland, and the Museum of Louvre, France
2013: Gewerbemuseum, Winterthur and Sammlung Reinking, Hamburg, Germany
2014: Museum Weserburg, Bremen and Haus fur Kunst Uri, Altdorf, Germany
2015: Strada Fossaccio, Viterbo and Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy.
Gewerbemuseum, Hamburg, Germany
2016: Mona, Tasmania
Is it real?
When people try to talk to him, he does not respond. Continues to sit motionless.
“Many people think that I am a sculpture, and are surprised when they realize that I’m alive,” says.
does Not consider that what he does be categorised as a performance.
Steiner is convinced that he was born to sit in a box.
“If this tattoo would not have been done by Wim Delvoye, would have no relevance as an artist,”, insists Steiner.
however, part of the intent of Delvoye is to show the difference between a box on the wall and a “canvas”live that changes with the passage of time.
“can I gain weight, I can appear scars, you could suffer a burn, anything. It is the life. In fact, I have had to do two operations in the low back,” says Steiner.
One of the nice things of his work at Mona was enjoying the gallery before it opened its doors to the public.
“Be there myself, with my headphones, doing stretching exercises, walking through the exhibition halls with works of art, stunning in a building mystical. It’s unreal,” says the man.
Will return you to this place in November and will spend there six months, after “exposed” in Denmark and Switzerland.
“This experience has convinced me that I am in this world to make this work: just sit in the boxes”.
And he concluded: “A day, TIM will be guindado on a wall. Beautiful.”
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