“Useless Bodies?” is the exhibition by artists Elmgreen & Dragset presented by Fondazione Prada in Milan until 22 August 2022. The project is conceived as a thematic investigation of the role of the body in today’s society through different aspects of our lives: from work to health, from interpersonal relationships to the way we record information.
Through ten open-ended questions, the episodes of ‘Questioning Bodies’ bring the body back into the focus of intellectual enquiry. The series turns into podcast some of the essays commissioned for the exhibition book, a 500-page publication conceived as a thematic extension of the project itself. It is a reader with multiple perspectives from over 35 authors —philosophers, artists, writers, scientists, and thinkers— sharing their ideas about our time in which physical presence seems to have lost its usefulness.
The 10 podcasts will be published on a regular basis from 9 June 2022.
To what degree is the body individual or relational?
Leslie Kern
Has sex become unpopular?
Maki Hirayama
Who’s afraid of the trans body?
Park Han-hee
Is what you do even work?
McKenzie Wark
How has digital culture influenced physical attraction?
Jamie Hakim
Is social tracking of our bodily movements social?
Anita Allen
What kind of body does our current society demand?
Lisa Blackman
Who owns your health?
Ezio Di Nucci
Is the smartphone excluding or extending the body?
Xinyuan Wang
