In The Silent Body, naked performers sit motionless behind a glass soundproof wall, speculating about intimate encounters with the viewer. The glass renders their words inaudible—the performers seem silenced–but speech-to-text software translates the words into a projection on the back wall. Visitors are close enough to sense intimacy but separated by the glass, making direct communication impossible. The work expresses a desire for physical closeness, presenting viewers as objects of sexual attention, while immediately rendering that closeness unattainable. The glass seems to censor the words, restraining the sexual impulse.

The Silent Body is an exploration of distance, between flesh and language, perception and projection, technology and emotion. The words, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes mundane, reveal an unfiltered monologue. Language becomes mechanical, stripped of the body: a flawed translation of thought into source code. The body is present but voiceless, while the voice is visible yet detached from its source.

As in works such as Guilty Landscapes and Your Kingdom Come, The Silent Body dissects the mechanics of spectatorship, revealing how distance shapes intimacy. The performers’ immobility transforms them into bodiless portals—embodiments of what remains unspoken when technology claims to connect us.

In previous works such as Lifestreaming and Wanna Play?, Dries Verhoeven examined how we approach intimacy in today’s screen-mediated reality. The Silent Body continues this exploration of language, technology, and physical connection, employing minimal means. Silence becomes a form of speech—calm, deliberate, and shaped by the presence of the performers.