“El Escandalo de lo real” (2007) Susana Delahante
In this work Susana had a photograph taken of herself being inpregnated via a speculum with the semen of a recently deceased man. as explained in “Conducta” or behavior, better known as performance art. This performative artwork was concerning itself with engaging reality and ethics in a political domain. Law and ethics are what most heated discussions are made of, and also a good place for investigation. The artist carried the embryo for 1 month 2 weeks and 4 days which raised many ethical issues, and debates. How should we think of this? As an act of defiance? Or a very clever conceptual art practice that truly needed to be carried out?
That work was an experiment I made with the support of a Team. Here I submit my body in an artificial insemination, using spermatozos from an anonymous donor after his death and previously he was agree with this. By this test we got a real relation between two bodies, which in appearance are in different process and conditions. As a result we got a new organism. I was pregnant during 1month, 2 weeks and 4 days from February, 2007. So, is a fact we can not say: a body is absolutely dead when we know there are some part in it which still alive. (Susana Delahante)