April 1, 2021

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Works by: Olivier Hölzl, Michail Michailov, Raphaele Shirley, Miae Son, Janos Brückner (special participation in Scope BLN)

Curated by: Boris Kostadinov

 

Virosological - a selection of short films was created in 2020 - the year that will undoubtedly be written in a noticeable font in recent world history. A year that introduced the terms ‘Pandemic Society’ and ‘New Normality’. 2020 confronted us with such fundamental changes in societies, political decisions and the global economy that we had forgotten since WWII. The pandemic has completely changed individual and collective behavior, it has confronted the concepts of globalism, it has created a good environment for far-right movements and a stage for conspiracy theories and it has unceremoniously revealed the contradictions of national, racial, economic, religious and gender contradictions.

Virusologiacal directly or indirectly corresponds to the Covid-19 era. Some of the videos "occupy" the reality from what is happening around us. In other works, the reality is presented in a more abstract way - through the depth of personal emotion.

 

Olivier Hölzl's cycle is based on the everyday phenomenology of the life of an isolated person. The configurations often look like strange visual symbols reflecting the schizophrenic nature of a society under a pandemic cover.

 

In Miae Son's performance, a house-shaped kite is made of emergency blanket material and tries to fly in the sky… The work can be read as a strong metaphor for the inability to move freely and the absurdity of not being able to travel to meet your loved ones.

 

Many different interpretations of our interaction with nature can be found in the enchanting pink smoke in the installation by Raphaele Shirley. 2020 was marked by industrial stagnation and reduced emissions of harmful pollutants into the atmosphere. The attitude of the "post-pandemic" citizen toward environmental issues will increasingly determine our future.

 

Michail Michailov often works with protective suits which in the current circumstances seems particularly relevant - as if they are occupied by the breaking news. However, his video is not about the specific topics of health systems and policies. The work is much more a metaphor of the desire for pure human emotions in a not-so-emotionally friendly post-industrial world.

 

Janos Brückner's micro-series (one episode will be shown in Berlin as a special participation) explore issues of race with all the resulting social classifications as well as the frequent absurdity of national self-identifications. These series were even more relevant in 2020 - in the midst of the Black Lives Metter movement.

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Text: Boris Kostadinov

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List of the works:

Olivier Hölzl, Home Quarantine Video Diary, 2020, 05:59 min.

Michail Michailov, Just Keep on Dancing, 2019, 04:10 min.

Raphaele Shirley, 100 Pink Smoke Flares (twice), 2019, 3:57 min. 

Miae Son, Lufthaus, 2019, 05:30 min.

Janos Brückner, It's Easy For You - Learning Whiteness, 2019, 05:25 min.

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