Invented Skins

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No one can escape their skin, a unique, non-transferable document that records individual and collective memory. Each skin has a sensitivity that interacts with the world, mediating temperature changes and bearing the marks of personal history. "Invented skins" emerges from research in art and literature, exploring the social dimensions of texts and images within cultural memory. It examines skin's materiality in images and narratives, as well as its qualities of appearance and texture as both tissue and organ. This work illustrates that skin is a biological reality occupying physical and psychic space while also existing in the imagination. Artists and writers must invent skins, acknowledging that each person has a skin and the capacity to create one. Historically, the concept of skin has evolved alongside the notion of race, which has shaped categorical hierarchies aimed at wealth accumulation and perspectives detached from racial notions. Race has been debated through various categories of non-white individuals, often positioned outside hierarchical frameworks. Before delving into the invention of skins, it is essential to recognize two distinct processes that inform this context.