La Peau du prénom (The First Name's skin)
2024
“‘I do not have a first name’ – this was the staggering realisation I had one day. Or rather, I did not have one anymore. The dead first name ran and dripped off my skin. A melody turned cacophonic. High-pitched, shrill, heavy. Too feminine.
“A name is gendered. But you can change your name. Change it. Yes, but for which one? How do you choose it? How do you self-define?
“Between encounters with my community, the quest for freedom and the reality of bureaucratic burdens, La Peau du Prénom is the story of my obsessive endeavour for a new first name, an essential step in my journey and transition. It is a testament to a questioning of gender, which, in a multiple and eclectic form, tells the story of a non-binary queer journey. [Lyoz] is a composition, an intimate and sensitive story, a coming out, a plunge between genders, inviting everyone to question this social construct.” — LB
With the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International
and the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (CWB), Paris – Hors-Les-Murs Constellations
Portfolio
About the artist
Born in 1995 in Tours, Lyoz Bandie lives and works in Liège (Belgium). They graduated from the École supérieure des Arts in Saint-Luc in 2021 and currently studies videography at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège. As a young queer photographer, Lyoz Bandie questions gender in an eclectic and multidisciplinary way. They were awarded the Roger de Conynck prize in 2021. La Peau du Prénom was published in 2023 by Éditions du Caïd.