director: Annick Vroom, camera: M. Claire Pijman, mixing: Alex Booy, translation and voice: Michael Blass

Cultural and Political Programming
I am fascinated by our individual identity. Where does the “I” end and the “outside world” begin, and how does this identity become part of a “construction” of our own cultural and political programming?

Status or Position
In Skeleton / Self-Portrait 23 I question this construction. Who or what legitimizes one’s status or position? Does this require a shared consensus or do individual beliefs also play a role here?

Sanctification
In Skeleton / Self-Portrait 23, the definition of what is “holy” is central. People are declared holy (“exceptionally good”) for several reasons, the most important being that they are in a particularly good relationship with God. Because of this good relationship with God, they are untouchable and should be treated with special respect.

Only: who or what is God? And how can the good relationship be established? Who better than the person himself can indisputably establish this extraordinary relationship? By canonizing myself holy in a notarial act, I am giving context and status to the previously crafted relics in my Skeleton project.

The text of the notarized deed reads as follows:
“I declare as of this day – January twenty-four, two thousand and thirteen – my person Holy. Hereby referring to: “that in the generally sacred is one who, or something which stands in a particularly good relationship to God and is therefore untouchable or should be treated with special respect” – “the sacred includes everything, through which man experiences touch and connection with the divine and which is the subject of his religious striving and awe.” I, Caspar Jacques Berger, hereby state that this has been conclusively established by me about myself and that thereby this statement has been accepted as factually true by me.
Keeping in mind that everything has been set in motion from the beginning and there must be one first cause of all motion : The Unmoved Mover. This entity must be perfect. From his perfection follow omnipotence, his omnipresence, his eternity, his immutability.
Whereby the body of man is the earthen vessel of the human spirit, which from the first cell division has completed itself entirely in awe-inspiringly wonderful self-contained manner. This temple of the spirit was not made with hands and should therefore be preserved and honored in a state of holiness. I proclaim the day of my birth as a feast day for my holiness.”