ABOUT MANUELA

At the core of her layered practice is the creation of artificial skins, onto which she meticulously crafts the intrinsic characteristics of each person. These silicone forms become the foundation for her experiments, as she re-contextualizes the human body across a diverse range of media, including altered objects, performance, dance, and photography.

By enabling out-of-body relationships, her work challenges the boundaries of identity, showing how it can be upheld and diluted. In her exploration of gender, Benaim reveals it as a modern conceptual invention, fluid and malleable. “Just like rubber,” she says, social constructs can stretch, reshape or expand, inviting viewers to reconsider the physical and conceptual limits of their bodies. Her work serves as a poignant reminder of our fragility and impermanence, yet also celebrates our uniqueness and interconnectedness. Each piece is a totem of singularity and oneness, contributing to a broader tapestrymof human diversity and experience.