In Reinvention, the exhibition's final section, visitors can explore the uses of body art as a means of crossing cultural boundaries. Worldwide travel, large-scale migrations, and increasing access to global networks of communication mean that body art today is a kaleidoscopic mix of traditional practices and new inventions. Materials, designs, and practices move from one cultural context to another, and practices are given new meanings as they move across cultural and social boundaries.

Body art allows people to reinvent themselves -- to rebel, to follow fashion, or to experiment with new identities. Like performance artists and actors, people in everyday life use body art to cross boundaries of gender, national identity, and cultural stereotypes.

Finally, this section uses a mirrored video installation to highlight body art in contemporary theater, masquerades, and carnivals, and enables visitors to look at themselves with a new perspective and understanding.

introduction | origins | representations
transformations | identities | distinctions | reinvention