A new performance commission that examines the human search for authenticity in a world built on repetition.
Bornsick reflects the idea that we inherit illness—born into a system that shapes us before we can define ourselves. The gymnastics and dance performance explores identity as a compulsive act of referencing, an endless cycle of borrowing and reshaping of what came before.
From the moment we enter the world, we inherit history—gestures, roles, expectations. We are taught movement, speech, and existence. The queer body, in particular, exists in a tension between conformity and freedom, constructing and reconstructing itself through cultural echoes. In a world built on repetition, in Bornsick, identity becomes an act of shapeshifting, a constant negotiation between imposed structures and self-determined transformation, never fixed but always in flux.
This idea comes to life in the performance as a body is built, piece by piece—a character assembled through learned movements, imposed behaviours, and artificial layers. Yet as these layers are stripped away, what remains is not a pure, original self, but another reference, another construct. Through conditioning, we create a machine. Through unlearning, we return to the animal. The cycle continues, revealing that there is no final, fixed truth—only endless adaptation.
Bornsick suggests that humanhood is a paradox—we search for something real, yet everything we are is borrowed. We long for authenticity, but if reality is only an echo of what came before, then individuality itself is an illusion— the self exists purely as a reflection.
Bornsick is commissioned by Serpentine and Edinburgh Art Festival.