To exist is to be split—between the self that is lived and the self that is seen. The moment my body is witnessed, it is no longer just mine. It is observed, interpreted, fragmented, turned into an image, a story, or a symbol, often distant from what I truly feel.
In that moment of witnessing, the body is no longer solely a lived experience; it transforms into something else. It exists in layers—what I know, what is seen, and what remains in memory. These layers don’t align perfectly with one another, creating a subtle yet constant dissonance.
The self I know moves through the world privately, changing, fluid, unspoken. But the self that is seen—what remains after I’ve been noticed—becomes something else. Fixed, captured, reshaped by others’ perceptions. This gap, between the lived and the seen, cannot be bridged.
"Lactose Unbearability" explores this space between what is felt and what is visible. In the tension between the internal and the external, what remains authentic? When the self becomes a spectacle, which parts of it are left unseen? And is it even possible to hold onto wholeness when the self is fractured by the lenses of others?
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