{"id":84054,"date":"2020-04-01T09:32:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T09:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=84054"},"modified":"2020-06-26T08:41:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T08:41:27","slug":"masked-performance-artist-narcissister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/","title":{"rendered":"Face off: up close and personal with masked performance artist, Narcissister"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,139],"tags":[15205,2407,3200,15207,6329,10247,2101,9431,14141,15085,124,1673,6271,3778,14528],"class_list":["post-84054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-art","tag-americas-got-talent","tag-body","tag-california","tag-diana-ross","tag-female-body","tag-femininity","tag-gender","tag-glamour","tag-masks","tag-narcissister","tag-new-york","tag-performance-art","tag-poc","tag-race","tag-striptease"],"acf":{"main_category":139,"legacy":false,"exclude_from_ads":[],"hero_title":"","subtitle":"A member of New York\u2019s underground performance circuit for over a decade, Narcissister stages visceral and subversive stripteases, challenging ideas concerning femininity, race and glamour\u2014By Kathryn O'Regan","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":{"ID":84130,"id":84130,"title":"narc 1","filename":"narc-1.jpg","filesize":72927,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/narc-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/narc-1\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"narc-1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84054,"date":"2020-04-01 10:09:50","modified":"2020-04-01 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Marilyn, 2016. Video Still. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

In 2011, the American performance artist who goes by the name of Narcissister<\/a> appeared on America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em> before a judging panel comprised of Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and Canadian comic Howie Mandel. Grainy YouTube footage shows the artist emerging onstage in a fairy princess-type cobalt-coloured cloak to the formidable opening chords of Beethoven\u2019s ‘Fifth Symphony’. She swings and spins around the stage, unclips the cloak, gracefully falls to the \ufb02oor and pulls her body upwards into a handstand. Beethoven somehow segues into Diana Ross\u2019 disco classic, ‘Upside Down’. Her clothes transform into a frilly tumble of petticoats and bloomers, both sides of her head bizarrely concealed by an eerie Barbie-style mask. As the performance comes\u00a0to an end, she glances towards the \ufb02oor, her fringe coquettishly falling into her eyes. And in that instance, doll mask or not, her coy expression looks real.<\/p>\n

For a performance artist whose work is built around the premise of wearing this uncanny mask (ordinarily just concealing her eyes, nose and cheekbones), the question of what is real and what is illusory is of major signi\ufb01cance. A member of the underground New York performance art circuit since the late Aughts, Narcissister (whose real name is Isabelle, although she prefers to remain anonymous) started to wear the mask in 2007 as a means to create art that could communicate ideas of what it means to be a woman, an artist and a person of colour, without commenting on what she refers to as the \u201cnarrow con\ufb01nes\u201d of her own personal experience. Working \ufb01rst as a dancer in New York, she started to support herself with commercial projects, styling window displays. \u201cI realised I could combine my work life with my visual art which was about identity and exploring womanhood and the body and race,\u201d she explains. Meanwhile, the name \u2018Narcissister\u2019 (an obvious reference to perhaps contemporary culture\u2019s greatest \ufb02aw \u2013 narcissism \u2013 but also to her being a woman of colour, or a \u201csister\u201d, as she says) derived from a similar impulse. \u201cI needed to move away from dealing with my own personal experience and my own faith, and so I knew if I picked a different name and wore a mask, I could make statements that were much more broad,\u201d she explains. \u201cFor me, wearing a mask makes the work surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

In an epoch de\ufb01ned by the phenomenon of what Jia Tolentino referred to in The New Yorker<\/em> last December as \u2018The Age of Instagram Face\u2019 \u2013 the ubiquity of a technologically-engineered (through apps like FaceTune and ultimately, plastic surgery), uniform and cyborgian beauty among women \u2013 the idea of a woman wearing a mask as part of her professional artistic persona is not all that different, or even strange, by comparison. One is a mask in a literal form, and the other, just a mask by other means \u2013 \ufb01llers and injections or gleaming \ufb01lters, a sheer veil of digitally-rendered, poreless skin.<\/p>\n

Narcissister\u2019s shape-shifting performance art orbits around the arti\ufb01ce of identity, particularly femininity. While she assumes a mask to conceal her face, her body is mostly naked apart from the addition of garters, suspenders and a merkin. A number of her performances involve the motion of pulling clothing items and objects from her ori\ufb01ces, and take the form of a visceral re-interpretation of striptease or burlesque. Her work frequently encompasses the tropes and signi\ufb01ers of a typically feminine form of glamour, one with its roots in old Hollywood: pearl necklaces, fur stoles, long hair, high heels and lingerie. In this case, it is a stirring DIY juxtaposition between socially-prescribed feminine pageantry and a sort of gross-out, carnal spectacle. For her, the erotic aspect of her work allows her and her audiences to \u201caccess boldness and personal freedoms in whatever forms that might take\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of her signature performances, Marilyn<\/em> (2016), operates on this strangely abject plane. Wearing an icewhite, peroxide-blonde wig in reference to the Hollywood siren, Narcissister enacts a reverse strip tease by gradually dressing herself through garments pulled out of her vagina. The performance illustrates many of the de\ufb01ning concerns of her practice, of femininity and beauty, glamour and arti\ufb01ce. \u201cOne of the \ufb01rst posters I acquired to decorate the walls of my bedroom as a young teenager was of Marilyn Monroe, even though I knew virtually nothing about her or her work. I just found her to be so glamorous,\u201d she remembers. \u201cShe was beautiful in ways I certainly was not, but aspired to be. I recall being struck by what my mother told me at the time about the truth of her beauty \u2013 how fabricated it was \u2013 and also how troubled she had been. None of this was conveyed in the beautiful image of her in the poster! It\u2019s no surprise she came up in my work both as someone to revere and to complicate.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":84147,"id":84147,"title":"z06 Narcissister TITLE 6 2018","filename":"z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","filesize":467812,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/z06-narcissister-title-6-2018\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"z06-narcissister-title-6-2018","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84054,"date":"2020-04-01 11:28:52","modified":"2020-04-01 11:28:52","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","thumbnail-width":72,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","medium-width":1440,"medium-height":1920,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","medium_large-width":1440,"medium_large-height":1920,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","large-width":1440,"large-height":1920,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":9,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/z06-Narcissister-TITLE-6-2018-e1585742290550.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1440,"wpvr_mobile-height":1920}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Studies for Participatory Sculptures, 2015."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","text":"\"One of the first posters I acquired to decorate the walls of my bedroom as a young teenager was of Marilyn Monroe ... I recall being struck by what my mother told me at the time about the truth of her beauty \u2013 how fabricated it was .\"","source":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

The same premise of reverse striptease is seen in the performance I\u2019m Every Woman<\/em> (2009\u2013), where she dances naked to Chaka Khan\u2019s titular track. Amusingly, the performance cropped up in a 2012 episode of the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous<\/em>, with Jennifer Saunders\u2019 hedonistic Edina suggesting that she and her friend \u2013 the even more off-the-rails Patsy, played by Joanna Lumley \u2013 go and see one of Narcissister\u2019s shows. \u201cShe\u2019s a kind of crazy disco performance artist; she pulls things out of her pussy on a rotating platform singing \u2018I\u2019m Every Woman\u2019,\u201d explains Edina.<\/p>\n

But while Edina\u2019s description emphasises the outlandish humour that is no doubt an element of the performance artist\u2019s work, it\u2019s not the full story. In fact, Narcissister\u2019s practice has emerged out of a rich history of performance art and photography. This heritage arguably begins with \ufb01gures like French Surrealist Claude Cahun, who Narcissister refers to as a \u201cheroine\u201d of hers, continued in the Sixties and Seventies through the work of radical feminist artists such as the late Carolee Schneemann (who died last year, and whose work was the subject of a panel discussion featuring Narcissister at Art Basel Miami in December). Later, in the Eighties and Nineties, this combination of practices found its highest articulation in the staged photography of Cindy Sherman. Narcissister \u2013 who is set to perform at the Centre Pompidou in March, and has a residency at Artport gallery in Tel Aviv in the summer \u2013 considers her work to be a \u201chomage\u201d to these artists. \u201cI would like to think that I\u2019m a modern-day version of that kind of work. I\u2019m an heir to that lineage,\u201d she says. Narcissister references Schneemann\u2019s Interior Scroll performance in particular as a longstanding inspiration of hers. The in\ufb02uence is obvious: in the 1975 performance, held as part of the group show Women Here and Now<\/em> in East Hampton, New York, a naked Schneemann extracted a derogatory review of her work by a male critic from her vagina. Narcissister does, however, acknowledge that historically the feminist art canon was \u201coverwhelmingly white\u201d \u2013 \u201cI take on their mantle but make it more relevant for today and also more relevant to me as a woman of colour.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":[{"ID":84072,"id":84072,"title":"Narcissister, 2013-2","filename":"Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","filesize":546853,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/narcissister-2013-2\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"narcissister-2013-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84054,"date":"2020-03-31 12:53:41","modified":"2020-03-31 12:53:41","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","thumbnail-width":72,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","medium-width":1440,"medium-height":1920,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","medium_large-width":1440,"medium_large-height":1920,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","large-width":1440,"large-height":1920,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":9,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-2013-2-e1585659391545.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1440,"wpvr_mobile-height":1920}},{"ID":84075,"id":84075,"title":"Narcissister-Man Woman-Tony Stamolis 2007","filename":"Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","filesize":556798,"url":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/narcissister-man-woman-tony-stamolis-2007\/","alt":"","author":"1","description":"","caption":"","name":"narcissister-man-woman-tony-stamolis-2007","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84054,"date":"2020-03-31 12:59:21","modified":"2020-03-31 12:59:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1403,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","thumbnail-width":70,"thumbnail-height":96,"medium":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","medium-width":1403,"medium-height":1920,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","medium_large-width":1403,"medium_large-height":1920,"large":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","large-width":1403,"large-height":1920,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","1536x1536-width":1122,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","2048x2048-width":1403,"2048x2048-height":1920,"trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag-width":9,"trp-custom-language-flag-height":12,"wpvr_mobile":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Narcissister-Man-Woman-Tony-Stamolis-2007-e1585659638399.jpg","wpvr_mobile-width":1403,"wpvr_mobile-height":1920}}],"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Narcissister. Man Woman, 2007. Photo: Tony Stamolis. "}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

The daughter of a Sephardic Jewish mother from Morocco and an African-American father, Narcissister \u2013 who grew up in La Jolla, California and studied Afro-American studies at Brown University before earning a scholarship to study modern dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York \u2013 says she has \u201calways been aware of the malleability of gender and race\u201d. In a performance like Upside Down<\/em> on America\u2019s Got Talent<\/em>, the metamorphosis of identity is explored through dramatic costume switches and playful theatrics, but this is just one example of a constant desire to investigate the \ufb02uidity of identity and the possibilities allowed by that in her work. \u201cTo me, there\u2019s something that\u2019s very freeing about not staying \ufb01xed in any one identity,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I think I understand this very much from my own experience \u2013 feeling the complexity of identity within me \u2026 I can tear away this identity that I\u2019m embodying in costume-form so quickly, so swiftly and then suddenly I am someone else. I can be a man and I can really feel the power of that, and then I can be a beautiful blonde woman \u2013 the kind that I felt oppressed by growing up in Southern California \u2013 and I can revel in that, in feeling what it\u2019s like to be this beautiful blonde woman and then I can tear her away. For me, it\u2019s just very liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assumption of multiple, changing identities has a long history within feminist art, with artists like Cahun and Sherman probing the arti\ufb01ce of femininity through masquarade. But Narcissister\u2019s work, following this lineage, illuminates how the donning of masks and the appropriating of archetypes is not just a way to emphasise the set of socially-constructed codes and visual spectacles that constitute femininity. On the contrary, it also shows how masquerade can be a source of subversive power for those who identify as female.<\/p>\n

In her autobiographical 2018 \ufb01lm, Narcissister: Organ Player<\/em>, the artist states, \u201c[I could look] at myself more deeply as a character with a mask than I could without it\u201d. For her, the reasons for wearing the mask are twofold. On the one hand, it operates as a mirror: \u201cWhatever the audience\u2019s thoughts or projections are about her [Narcissister] are re\ufb02ected right back at them. It is a strategic tool,\u201d she says. And on the other, the mask has provided her with a shield with which to protect herself and to create the sort of provocative, charged art she has always wanted to. \u201cI knew from the beginning I wanted to make work that was overtly erotic, and the mask protects me while I am doing that work that would otherwise leave me feeling very vulnerable, afraid or exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","text":"\"To me, there\u2019s something that\u2019s very freeing about not staying \ufb01xed in any one identity.\u201d","source":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Narcissister: Organ Player<\/em>, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival (this year, the artist presented a short called Breast Work<\/em> at the event), untangles how her complex family history, and particularly her intense relationship with her mother (whose death in 2012 the \ufb01lm poignantly describes), compelled her to create the character of Narcissister. While she knew that her alter ego allowed her to explore spectacle, humour and eroticism, the artist was surprised to learn what a comfort the character of Narcissister would be through times of grief and loss. \u201cThere are no limits to what I can explore as that character \u2026 Through her, I can also embody some of life\u2019s heavier themes and moments. That\u2019s what \u2018no limits\u2019 means to me in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the \ufb01lm, Narcissister swims naked underwater to scatter her mother\u2019s ashes. As the credits roll, Candanian musician and fellow performance artist, Peaches, sings over a glittering electro beat: \u201cI\u2019ve got light in places you didn\u2019t know I could shine\u201d \u2013 a poetic reminder of everything that Narcissister is about.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

This story originally appeared in SLEEK 65\u00a0o<\/a>ut now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Alongside the launch of our spring issue exploring glamour as a \u2018verb\u2019 SLEEK is dropping our \u201cNo one cares if you dress up now\u201d tees. Available to purchase\u00a0here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

All images courtesy the artist.<\/p>\n"}]},"yoast_head":"\nFace off: up close and personal with masked performance artist, Narcissister Face off: up close and personal with masked performance artist, Narcissister<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Face off: up close and personal with masked performance artist, Narcissister Face off: up close and personal with masked performance artist, Narcissister\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/masked-performance-artist-narcissister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sleek Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sleekmag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-01T09:32:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-26T08:41:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sleekmag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sleek\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sleek Magazine\",\"description\":\"Sleek is Germany\u2019s leading independent media house\/brand for creativity and innovation located in Berlin the creative capital of the world. 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