Vienna, February 21–May 14, 2017, http://www.tba21.org Oceans as a metaphor for the immateriality and fluidity of labor in global capitalism – this could be the tagline of the exhibition. Allan Sekula was from the 1960’ generation, and kept his critical leftist position throughout his career as an artist employed in academia. His territory of choice…
Vienna, March 10 – May 14, 2017, http://www.akbild.ac.at Two shows opened simultaneously and appeared to be intertwined in some way. One declared to be about feminism and the body, the other about the post-human condition and the sea metaphor. Before writing on, please allow for a short critical interlude: Does it need any comment? Is…
Berlin, 8pm, February 4, 2017, http://spektrumberlin.de Spektrum is a space specializing in the intersection of art, science and community as its tagline says. At street level, one enters through a laid back and comfortably designed lounge area with sofas, chairs, a bar and dim lighting. At the back side is a medium-sized room with a…
Berlin, November 17, 2016 – February 26, 2017, http://www.discursus.info/ The two rooms of the gallery (front and back) were each given to one of the artists. It felt like a double solo show with two spatially separate gallery zones. Each of the works was quite different. Peter Vink’s large scale installation in the front room…
Berlin, January 20 – February 11, 2017, http://www.nonberlin.com The exhibition, curated by Ido Shin, contained 4 video-based artworks by 4 artists: Akim, Chan Sook Choi, Fabian Bechtle and Konrad Mühe. The title of the show remained a bit mysterious. I connected “dual use” in my mind with materials, appliances or infrastructure that serves more than…
Berlin, February 2 – March 5, 2017, http://www.transmediale.de This was a very nice new media art exhibition. Everything was perfectly set up, with theatrical spot lighting in a dimly lit spacious hall. There was a perfect balance of different media, as well as artwork sizes. There were some screens with videos, but not too many,…
Berlin, 6pm-8pm, February 5, 2017, https://2017.transmediale.de Johannes Paul Raether was talking first. His artwork Protektor.x.x has been also part of the transmediale exhibition. All his thought seem to be channeled through the set of colorful clown-like alter ego performances, where he addresses the questions of gender and biotechnology. He talked about witches preventing a rationalization…
Berlin, February 04, 2017, http://transmediale.de First the three panelists each had 10-15 minute presentations, followed by a longer discussion, all moderated by Krystian Woznicki. Jutta Weber talked about technology, the fact that technology is not neutral. She talked about databases and their never-ending-list-like structure that is very different from the narrative storytelling inherent in prior,…
Berlin, Febuary 4, 2017, http://transmediale.de This session was dedicated to the “others” that help to mediate between humans and the “real” whatever that is: Non-human agents that could emerge in the form of algorithms, but also technological layers, and, actually, anything. Even a stone could be an actor, if we go by the new materialism…
Berlin, February 03, 2017, http://transmediale.de/ A busy panel with lots of people: Jessie McLean, media artist, presenting eternal Photoshop climbing video. Grada Kilomba, writer and artist, focusing on colonial and postcolonial topics, emancipation of marginalized groups. Susan Schuppli, media artist, utilizing found footage of massacres to question mediated evidence. Ryan Bishop, media/political theorist talking about…