Caroline Mesquita

‘Cool Memories’ @ Occidental Temporary, Jun 5 – Jul 20

3 June 2016

The Cool Memories group exhibition is on at Paris’ Occidental Temporary, opening on June 5 and running to July 20.

Curated by Myriam Ben Salah, the exhibition features 20 artists and collectives —Dora Budor, Fischli & Weiss, Martine Syms, Mélanie Matranga, Caroline Mesquita and Katja Novitskova among them —and comes accompanied by a piece of prose comparing global celebrity Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat to a “Near Death Experience”.

The text goes on to compare a selfie by the reality TV star to a character from a novel by cult sci-fi author Philip K Dick; a cyberpunk prophecy “where memories as well as identities are disposable commodities and the present is nothing but a perpetual staging of stillborn moments.”

Cool Memories takes its title and approach to a “fragmentary and messy” structure from philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s essay series, creating a space “where consciousness loses its ability to distinguish reality from its simulation” and promising “an assembly line for images, for shots swallowed by the present that they’re desperately trying to hold back.”

See the FB event page for details.**

Martine Syms, Fact & Trouble (2016). Installation view. Photo by Mark Blower. Courtesy ICA, London.
Martine Syms, Fact & Trouble (2016). Installation view. Photo by Mark Blower. Courtesy ICA, London.
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I pledge Allegiance @ On Stellar Rays, Feb 28 – Apr 3

26 February 2016

The I pledge Allegiance group show is on at New York’s On Stellar Rays, opening February 28 and running to April 3.

Curated by Elisa R. Linn and Lennart Wolff’s km temporaer curatorial project, the exhibition takes it title from poet, art critic and poet Rene Ricard‘s 1981 essay on the East Village gallery scene ‘The Pledge of Allegiance’. The press release features an excerpt that refers to a certain ‘Artist Zero’ in conversation over ‘Marchesa de X’, a writer at “the nexus of creative forces” yet largely unrecognised.

The parallels between this text and the art world of the past still resonates with the global political climate of the present, as the 30-year-old essay references individualism, a “conspiracy of excellence” and war:

“We are living in a time of war: war remembered, war actual, and war anticipated. The sense of the moment has led us to the encampment where deserters from all armies are burning the small fires of discourse.”

The show features works by Jason Benson, Kerstin Brätsch, Debo Eilers, Nic Xedro, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Dani Leder, Jonas Lipps, Caroline Mesquita, Keegan Monaghan, Nolan Simon and Dylan Spaysky, as well as music by fellow contributors Tobias Spichtig and Theresa Patzsche at the opening.

See the On Stellar Rays website for details.**

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