Masking Tape, by Emanuele Pappalardo

14th May 2026

In a claustrophobic setting where the body is no longer a right but a product to be validated, an isolated individual is confronted with his own real physical imperfections. Obsessed with a flawless, synthetic self-image generated by Artificial Intelligence, he begins to perceive it not as an inspiration, but as a social and market obligation. Guided by a clinical, relentless voice that rattles off the data of his ‘anatomical failure’, the man uses adhesive tape in an extreme physical attempt to constrain and realign his own flesh. ‘Realignment’ is the brutal staging of the collapse of bodily autonomy: the exact moment when a human being agrees to mutilate their own nature in order to be consumed by society.