Since the 1970s Silvia Kolbowski has developed an art practice focusing on the importance of recognizing that all human subjects, including those in the role of spectators, perceive the world, and art, through the lens of the psyche. In works of the 1990s, Kolbowski developed works that addressed consumption, desire, display and power within art institutions and other public spaces; subsequent works focused on challenging spectators to see themselves as embedded in political, economical as well as media structures, through time-based modalities employing juxtaposition, displacement, and montage.
In the framework of “Everyone an Island After All?”, in which Silvia Kolbowski’s video work These Goods are available at _____2021 is on show, this event will be screening her video That Monster: An Allegory, followed by a talk on the unconscious aspects of spectatorship:
That Monster: An Allegory (2018) is a film about the human subjects formed by neoliberal capitalism, and the psychical dimensions underlying the breakdown of democracy in the U.S. and worldwide. The video addresses, through allegorical means, the projections and identifications at play in today’s mass politics, challenging spectators to think about their own projections and identifications in regards to political “others.”
Silvia Kolbowski is a London-based artist working with time-based media, whose scope of address includes questions of historicization, political resistance, and the unconscious.
Her work has been exhibited in many international venues and contexts, including The Tapei Biennial, the Villa Arson, Nice, The Whitney Biennial, New York, and The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, among others. In addition, she has had one-person exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, the Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, The Secession, Vienna, and LAX<>ART.
Kolbowski was a co-editor of October journal between 1993 and 2000. She has taught at The Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, the CCC program of the Ecole Superiéure d’Art Visuel, Geneva, the Architecture Department of Parsons The New School for Design, NY, and the School of Art at The Cooper Union. Kolbowski has lectured widely, and her writings have been included in many publications, including Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Documents, Parachute, and October. She currently writes a blog as an extension of her art practice to another platform (silviakolbowskiblog.com).
Hybrid event
Zoomlink
Meeting-ID: 85056357108
An event within the framework of “Everyone An Island After All?”
Support
Der Senator für Kultur der Freien Hansestadt Bremen
Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Zusammenhang mit dem Programm NEUSTARTplus Plattformen der bildenden Kunst der Stiftung Kunstfonds
Image credit
Silvia Kolbowski, That Monster: An Allegory, 2018 (Videostill)