Curated
by artist Bogomir Doringer in support of Brigitte Felderer from the Applied
Arts Academy in Vienna, is an exhibition exploring a phenomenon present all
around us: the fashion of facelessness that first appeared in the creative arts
at the beginning of this century and has remained popular since then. The
exhibition reminds us of the impact that media-generated images can have on the
creative arts and the ways in which they respond to public images, pop culture,
and the mainstream in general. The exhibition shows, the appeal that hiding,
veiling, or masking the face exerted on art and fashion after 9/11. The fear of
terrorist attacks led to a change in security concepts and the installment of
surveillance systems in public spaces – presented to us as if for our own
safety. As a result, we feel that our faces are becoming "compressed"
and exposed. The only way for us to regain this lost privacy is through
subversive media strategies or by reinventing privacy. By wearing a “mask” we
form a collective critical body.
As
the value of facial identifiability has risen, abstracted forms and
representations of faces have become increasingly common in artistic
production. Bogomir Doringer, for one, has been exploring the theme of
facelessness in fashion and art for years. “Our unstable identity yearns for a
return to the mask,” he says. “Like in times past, we are attracted to wearing
masks as a form of protection or camouflage, as a prop, or just for
entertainment.”
Following
the events of 9/11, images of masked faces of terrorists became dominant in the
media; repeated as a ghostly, unknown presence that reminds us of the unsafe
time we live in. At the same time, throughout Europe people began to pursue a
ban on burqas. Artists and designers at the very beginning started directly
reacting on these issues with their works, but slowly the reference has been
lost and an image remained. In addition to the loss of privacy, the rules of
modern technology demand that we be constantly visible. Social networks,
initially developed as platforms for communication, came to define standards of
everyday activity and lifestyle. They approach us with the promise of serving
as tools for self-promotion, and then increasingly invade our privacy with our
express consent.
“As
much as a face and an expression can give away about us,” says co-curator
Brigitte Felderer of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, “we have plenty of
creative potentials at our disposal for making these tale-telling surfaces
illegible, even invisible, without running the risk of suffering social death.”
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FACELESS
continues the survey in a more participatory, laboratory approach and
researching practical solutions for anonymity in contemporary society that are
result of interdisciplinary works involving art or coming from artist mostly.
The focus is on interdisciplinary works and lectures, performances, and
workshops that convey how we can survive without losing face and at the same
time revolt.
In
De Markten, FACELESS will be presented in a smaller format as a media
laboratory open on the invitation of and as part of the 8th Computers, Privacy
and Data Protection congress (http://www.cpdpconferences.org/) it will be
followed by a symposium on the Privacy Day on 28th of January involving special
guests. The exhibition successfully merges art and fashion in the context of a
subject that is of collective urgency and importance.
FACELESS
was presented and produced for the first time at Museums Quartier in Vienna,
and then later presented at Mediamatic in Amsterdam. In spring 2015 it will
shape itself in a form of publication published in support of the Applied Arts
Academy, Artistic Technology Research, Museums Quartier and Linz Art Academy. Visitors
are kindly invited to upload “faceless” images and gif and join the ongoing
research and future exhibitions www.facelessexhibition.com
Exhibition:
22.01.-08.02.2015
Organisation:
Privacy Salon vzw and Restart vzw. Partners: IAPP, deBuren, Vrije Universiteit
Brussel and De Markten en freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL / MuseumsQuartier
Vienna
FACELESS
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Marina
Abramović, Lisette Appeldorn, Martin Backes, Jeremy Bailey, William Basinski,
Zach Blas, Thorsten Brinkmann, DAWAMESK (Thomas Mercier), Ondrej Brody &
Kristofer Paetau, Ben DeHaan, Sofie Groot Dengerink, Nezaket Ekici, Arthur
Elsenaar, Shahram Entekhabi, Caron Geary aka FERAL is KINKY, David Haines, Ren
Hang, Adam Harvey, Sabi van Hemert, Jwan Yosef, Katsuya Kamo for Junya Watanabe
COMME des GARÇONS, KATSU, Brian Kenny, Miodrag Krkobabić, Vanessa Lodigiani,
Zachari Logan, Jill Magid, Slava Mogutin, Veljko Onjin, Bernd Oppl, Tanja
Ostojić, Marco Pezzotta, Gerda Postma, Eva-Maria Raab, RAF SIMONS, Daphne
Rosenthal, Tarron Ruiz-Avila, Mustafa Sabbagh, Olivier de Sagazan, Daniel
Sannwald for WOODKID, Carmen Schabracq, Frank Schallmaier, Hester Scheurwater,
Tim Silver, Jan Stradtmann, Sergei Sviatchenko, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Saša
Tkačenko, Marc Turlan, Levi van Veluw, Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek, Philippe
Vogelenzang & Majid Karrouch, Martin C de Waal, Bernhard Willhelm, Andrew
Norman Wilson and Lucy Wood.
