Irma Sofia Poeter

New Man: The creation of new masculinities 

2022

In 2017 I visited the medieval town of Belforte Del Chienti in Italy. There I met some of the townspeople, their stories of joy and sorrow. The connection was strong and beautiful. I invited them to participate in an art project called “Portraits: Healing textures”, one of them was 

“Ruben”. They came individually to my studio in Belforte, there I started to apply cutouts of textiles, creating mandalas on their bodies. The intention was, knowing a bit of their history, to provoke a healing act in them. Following the application we had a meditation culminating with taking the photographs. After, the reaction specially of the men was very interesting. They didn’t want to take off the cutouts for they felt very peaceful and in balance, so we stayed a bit longer talking about the experience and delving in their personal stories. The enthusiastic and generous participation of the men in this exercise was surprising, their necessity to express and share their stories was evident. Although the cutouts on their faces looked as if they where wearing masks, these masks acted as vehicles not to hide but to reveal their soul, their true essence.