Molly Soda, all by myself, 2016, Photo: Matt Cianfrani
Your Digital Self Hates You
Exhibition:
July 7 to July 22, 2016, Sommerfenster, Stadtgalerie Bern
Artists:
Ann Hirsch, Camille Kaiser, Elisa Giardina Papa, Sunita Prasad,Tabita Rezaire, Mathias Ringgenberg,
Molly Soda, Amalia Ulman and May Waver
Todays social media platforms confrm what Andy Warhol predicted in 1968: „In the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.“ No matter if by singing or dancing, with make-up tutorials or as a camgirl – the possibilities to obtain the fifteen-minute fame are endless. In this quest for attention and admiration, the body becomes the central material to work with. Almost desperately, (young) people are trying to live up to absurd norms of behavior, beauty and ftness that can be witnessed on Instagram and other social media platforms. It seems that the price to be part of this self- improvement game is the intimacy of the shared images and texts that everyone is more than willing to pay. The bedroom becomes the stage for these varied performances, thus turning a former private interior into a public space, into which strangers are voluntarily let in through the computer camera. But can we do justice to the digital self we create? Or is there no discrepancy between real and virtual life anymore?
The exhibition and the accompanying events program engage with artistic practice that deals with online identity and the effects it has on the relationship between the digital and the real body. In their work, the invited artists analyze the norms and strategies of online representation and propose alternative approaches to the contemporary practice of online self-expression.
Performance Event:
July 13, 2016, Stadtgalerie Bern
8 pm: Sunita Prasad, Sunny and Benny Together Forever
10pm: Mathias Ringgenberg aka PRICE, Greatest Hits
This project was supported by Kilchenmann AG, Data Quest, Siber + Siber und Kunsthalle Bern