On October 25, 2018, the press office of the German Pavilion of the Biennale diVenice, announced the until then eagerly awaited name of the artist or group of artists whowould occupy the pavilion in 2019: Natascha Süder Happelmann. Perplexed journalists and artcritics graze the Berliner Zeughauskino. They headlined: “Who is Natascha Süder Happelmann?”,“Masked Artist Designes Biennale-Pavilion”, “Venice Biennale: Brain under Stone”, alongside aprint of the artist’s iconic image: a human with a head made of stone. Anonymization andalter-egos have always been used as a means and strategy by artists, performers, but alsowriters such as journalists and poets. Often these are performative acts, interventions ininstitutional structures, or deconstructions of representation or law. With Süder Happelmannit was a political intervention, and a successful one. But what if the alter-ego, masking oranonymization becomes an inner urge off stage and in public, if it provokes a total identityor even species transformation in people? How do we interpret a human’s transformation into anexotic animal? Just how flexible is our tolerance for a white European literally becoming hisKorean K-Pop idol? Can love penetrate so deeply that the “Self” ceases all meaning? Can the“Self” be someone else, or a group of people even? (Azin Feizabadi)
My aunt is 60 years old. She is about to undergo a series of injections of cells taken from a heterocephalus - an animal of great longevity that is immune to all cancers. Speaking to the camera, she describes a very peculiar ritual intended to preserve her body and potentially induce a change. Rodentia examines the fears and fantasies of the timeworn female body steered by the beauty industry and scientific promises.… >>>
I’m disguised, right in front of you. I'm here, here, here, and here, and here, and here, I'm them, and they, and they... I squatted down on the trunk, right in front of you, disguised as a monkey, a ‘hundred-eye monkey’. It really looks like them. I chose the skin I have now, with all the pores and smell closed. Come on! Come on, pick a skin, right across from me, we'll be here forever, we'll be Safe, legs squat numb also do not go anywhere. I’m disguised, right in front of you, it is about "the future of the future ". The future in this movie assumes that everything is digital. The "hundred-eye monkey" is only an image visualized by digital information. It can be a stone, a leaf, a light, or nothing at all, so it can be replaced by an image, and by the logic of the movie you can be anything you want to be. Any image that appears in this film is regarded as an independent "consciousness body". In this connected world, everything is digital. Things, events, including our consciousness, even a grain of sand are data, so everything is equal in this digital relationship. Reality is becoming visualized and decentralized. People and things are units, and numbers are the tiniest of them all. We use virtual identity and skin to conduct activities on the Internet. What is addressed in the film may be about the so-called ‘noumenon’ under the skin.… >>>
An employee fakes his clients' lives in an apartment for tax purposes. What constitutes a life and can humans recreate themselves through imitation?… >>>
AIVA is an aspiring artist, she is female coded and AI controlled. She draws after models, using algorithms developed by scientists. The creator of the robo-artist, her gallery owner, promises that AIVA's algorithms are not only actually capable of exhibiting creative properties, but they can unleash their potential, as well. AIVA is an experimental arrangement of the female genius. AIVA is introduced to the public through a television report. A glimpse into her studio allows for first impressions of her artistic process. Inspired by her male muse, the AI artist explores the male nude and analysis its many facets. While working on the masculine 3D model, the female robot talks to herself and gradually dismantles classic male stereotypes. AIVA is based on the true story of Ai-Da, the first female robot artist created in 2019 by a gallery owner and a team of engineers in England.… >>>
Oli London, English, in his thirties, is fascinated by South Korea and especially by Jimin, a member of worldwide famous K-pop band BTS. For years, he has spent a fortune on plastic surgery to look like him and become a K-pop star himself. His personal journey is staged via a Korean tale related to Hahoe shamanic mask dance.… >>>