Juan Munoz at the Tate Modern

If you’re interested in ideas of self and the body go and see Juan Munoz’s show on at the Tate Modern at the moment.

There, I stood alongside an inanimate man, considering his supersize shadow, and screaming it seemed. And I considered my shadow supersized. Was it about projecting elements of the self, creating that shadow image so large and imposing? Or was he shouting at this shadow? – did he know it was his own or did he think it something scary and unknown even though he produced it? Did he see himself as the small compact figure of rage or desperation, or as the large two-dimensional shape of darkness?

I peered over the shoulder of another figure, which was in turn peering over the shoulder of a fellow human-shaped model, both looking at a mirror. They both wore cardboard masks through which they could see, but which disguised all of their faces – what did they see? What were they looking at? Was my self in the mirror as masked to me as the faces of these figures?

I walked through a room full of laughing, smiling clusters of small Asian-featured men. At first I wanted to laugh too – that kind of laugh that rolls up from your stomach in not quite a normal laughing place, that makes you feel a little crazy or nervous. And then I felt slightly panicked at being outside these happy groups.

I stood and wondered about body language, and about what the artist saw in backs, or mouths. And thought about the spaces we live in and interact with.

I won’t describe too much more less I ruin the surprise, but I found it very provoking and very moving. There is a lot that is very human in it. Expressions of different senses and parts of the body, places that humans occupy, self-image, components of our ideas of selfhood. There is a lot that I felt quite powerfully was reminding me of something, but I couldn’t work out quite what and I wanted to just sit there and think about it.

It’s very good. Do go.

Interesting site where you can see installation views, text and pictures - http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/munoz/project/title.html
Tate Modern info - http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/juanmunoz/default.shtm
Guardian obituary - http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/juanmunoz/default.shtm