MP5 “Pandrogyny” for Theatre National de Bruxelles, Belgium

Italian artist MP5 sent a few images of ‘Pandrogyny’, her latest Installation created for the Theatre National de Bruxelles.

According to MP5, ‘Pandrogyny’ is inspired by the same concept of the same name coined by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, and occultist.

Unlike the concept of Androgyny which is the state of possessing certain characteristics of both genders in one’s physical appearance. “Pandrogyny is the conscious embracing of gender roles, sexual orientations, or cultural traditions so as to render the person’s original identity completely indecipherable. It is the ‘third gender’…a type of gender-neutral living being more akin to the OTHER, or internal self.

Pandrogeny is not about defining differences, but about creating similarities, not about separation but about unification and resolution.

“The pandrogyne was the whole and we were each other’s other half. DNA is really the new battleground for evolution. If we want to survive as a species, if we want to hopefully colonize space and do incredible things, we have to completely reassess how the human body works and realize that it’s not sacred, it’s just stuff”. – Genesis P-Orridge (Source).

The figures painted by MP5 have no sex, they represent a unity of sexes that highlight the similarities between them, men and women are one, and none.

About MP5

MP5 MP5 is a muralist, illustrator, painter, but also an alternative comic book maker, mostly known for her large black and white murals with a clearly illustrative style. Her work is deeply reflective, and in her murals, there are remains of her political poster design, Eastern philosophy and a desire to communicate this thoughts with the viewer.
Her murals are expression of a unique style, emphasising their contoured shapes which she paints in black and white, sometimes adding bold colours to it.

About the Pandrogeny Project (1993–2009)

In January 1993, Genesis and his later second wife, Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer), relocated to Ridgewood, Queens in New York City. It was here that the couple embarked on what they termed the “Pandrogeny Project”; influenced by the cut-up technique, the duo underwent body modification to resemble one another, thus coming to identify themselves as a single pandrogynous being named “Breyer P-Orridge”. In doing so, the pair underwent $200,000 worth of surgical alteration, receiving breast implants, cheek and chin implants, lip plumping, eye and nose jobs, tattooing, and hormone therapy, while also adopting gender neutral and alternating pronouns. With this project, P-Orridge’s intent was to express a belief that the self is pure consciousness trapped within the DNA-governed body. The couple adopted the term “pandrogyne” because – in their words – “we wanted a word without any history or any connections with things—a word with its own story and its own information.” They also stated that:

We started out, because we were so crazy in love, just wanting to eat each other up, to become each other and become one. And as we did that, we started to see that it was affecting us in ways that we didn’t expect. Really, we were just two parts of one whole; the pandrogyne was the whole and we were each other’s other half.