show your tongue!

 

SHOW YOUR TONGUE!
NENO BELCHEV – BULGARIA

CELULA DE ARTA

4-21 February 2021

 

At the beginning of 2020, I started to redraw photos at random: found on the internet, photos

of my friends or wild animals and so on. In this process, somehow, I came upon the idea to redraw photos of people with their tongues sticking out!

A great part in communication among people is performed verbally, that is, through the use of the speech organs, in which the basic organ is the human TONGUE, composed of eight muscles working together.

Certainly, communication is not only verbal but the interesting thing for me is that although the TONGUE plays a huge role and work in communication, it also does a huge part of the eating and drinking work. In fact, the TONGUE is rarely exposed. (It is most often shown to doctors, who judge from it of the health of their patients.) The TONGUE just like fingerprints, the eyes and their retina, nose, ears and mouth are unique to every person, that is, the TONGUE is also part of our individuality and identity.

Sticking out a TONGUE is considered as either disrespectful or ill-mannered in many countries, and this act can also be erotic in nature, yet it has different meanings across cultures. For example, in the Maori tradition of New Zealand, sticking out a TONGUE is a belligerent act by which one warrior provokes another to battle, while in the Tibetan mountains, the act of sticking out a TONGUE is considered a salute, something like a handshake for us. Based on such information, it can be concluded that not only the organ TONGUE is unique, but also the act of sticking out a TONGUE itself speaks a lot about the identity of the individual, who performs that act.

The sticking out a TONGUE is not something new, it has been known since ancient times, but perhaps in ancient times its meaning was different, because if we trace it historically, it is usually inherent in terrifying characters from different mythologies: Gorgona Medusa in Ancient Greek mythology, Kali in ancient Hindus mythology, Krampus in the beliefs of northwestern Europe. Many pictures of spooky people and animals are found on the Internet, but no paintings of humans sticking out a TONGUE are found, except for one drawing by Egon Schiele made in 1909.

The exhibit can be seen as an initial stage of the exploration study over sticking out a TONGUE.