This Bionic Pop Artist Is Shaking Up The Cabaret Scene

Brut America

"I really look at prosthetics in a very similar way of how I use everything around me — to sort of express myself." VIKTORIA MODESTA spoke to Brut about shaking up cabaret beauty standards and how her prosthetic leg makes her feel empowered.

Transcript

00:00I hope that when people come and see it, that prosthetics isn't the only thing that's on

00:09their mind.

00:10You just caught us while we were getting ready for the show.

00:20It's less than an hour to go.

00:26Coming through this experience with my body just really made me have a different understanding

00:30about it.

00:31It made me think about the fact that everything that we create around ourselves comes directly

00:39out of our imagination.

00:40I've fallen in love with the idea of creating a conceptual sort of identity and I really

00:46look at prosthetics in a very similar way of how I use everything around me to sort

00:51of express myself.

00:52There are moments where I'm in the spike, where I feel like I'm the most superhero of

00:58myself.

00:59Do you think that women are always superheroes?

01:02I think it's important for me to aim to be the best version of you, whatever that means.

01:12That's always a motivation and I think that attitude is the superhero attitude.

01:18When you believe that more things are possible.

01:23I never really thought I would find myself on a stage of a cabaret.

01:28I actually had an accident at birth and it was a very ancient time for medicine at the

01:38time.

01:39But yes, after initially making some mistakes during my birth, they actually didn't show

01:46me to my mother for about five days and eventually when they did, they were surprised that she

01:52wanted to see me because they just wanted to send me to an orphanage.

01:57My mother kind of saved me at the time.

02:02But I think that the irony is that the isolation from the society and the people around me

02:10meant that I developed my own understanding of reality.

02:14I was so inspired by watching Disney, by Hollywood movies, by music videos.

02:22I loved the idea that we as human beings have so much potential to take charge of our life

02:29and just transform ourselves and transform also the world.

02:34I really kind of chose to have an operation and to remove my biological leg because it

02:44was really something that was a problem.

02:46I was able to take ownership of my body.

02:48I was able to just write a new story.

02:53The way we sort of obsess about valuing our body and tie it to our identity is so strong

03:02that I think it can be damaging because I spent five years sort of like having a pretty

03:10tough time in my life where the doctors thought that it was perfectly normal for me to just

03:15go home and that somehow having a damaged biological body part was better than having

03:22an artificial.

03:23I think a lot of the time people sort of ask me whether I see myself as an activist or

03:28a spokesperson for anything.

03:33I think that my style of addressing issues is really just to lead by example and just

03:43make the thing, show the thing, show the alternative way of thinking.

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