This is how we dismantle it – Roberta De Caro

Feminine, Plural (detail).2019. Sole soap.

Art installation, performance, participatory & community art project

‘This is How We Dismantle It’ (2019, ongoing) is a multifaceted project that comprises a large installation titled ‘Feminine, Plural’ (2019), a performance, a participatory art event and a community art project, crossing the boundaries of different art categories.

It was originally conceived as an art installation as the final work of my degree show at City & Guilds of London Art School but from the outset it proved to be more than that, requiring a community effort to get it off the ground. It required an investment of almost £2k to purchase the specific soap bars that were necessary in order to build ‘Feminine, Plural’, a 4 meters long wall of Sole soap bars.

Due to internal regulation of the supplier, the product could not be imported directly from the Italian factories that produce it, but is not available in the UK market. This meant that it was not possible to buy it at wholesale price; it had to be purchased from an authorised retailer at full price.

In the end, cutting a long story short, the soap was bought and co-owned by a number of people who lent it to me for the duration of the show, and who collected it at the end or during the exhibition, when the wall came down. To read more about this group effort please go on ‘Oh Sole Mio’

A symbol of division and domestic isolation, the wall was destined to be taken down in an act of liberation. On Saturday 29th June 2019, during the week long degree show at City & Guilds of London Art School, the public was invited to join me in a performance and participatory art project where the wall down came down.

The ruins remained on the floor for the rest of the degree show. Viewers engaged with it in different ways; some played with the bricks building new structures…

After the show, hundreds of soap bars were collected and used as material for a series of soap carving workshops with the community.