Desired Restraints
On-line exhibition of video works

July 17-August 17, 2011
Artyčok.TV

We are informing you about the on-line curated video exhibition with the participation of Ida Hiršenfelder (assistant of video programs and archive DIVA Station) as a curator and Vesna Bukovec (SCCA web master) as an artist.

Desired Restraints

The question ‘What do you really truly want in life?’ seems like an advertisement for another product, another best selling self-help DVD video series promoting complete control for the disoriented subject. In lustrous and slick setting a soothing voice tames an individual and instructs it how to design one’s lifestyle or career to become free of all the doubts about one’s own identity. The analogy between choice and freedom, as philosopher Renata Salecl has disclosed in her analysis of choice, is one of the deepest delusions of the late capitalism. Limitless choices do not liberate us, but rather make us more than anything else constantly on the brink of a mental break down. The pressure of choosing everything puts unbearable pressure on an individual who should not have been taken responsible for the state she/he is in (e.g. social class).

A resonance of this theory echoes in numerous gestures of video artists – we present a selection of four video performances – that create absurd situations to express a deep psychological angst. The brilliant satire of their works lies in their clear and simplified narrative that hits the very core of the problem by portraying one small banality of fabricated ideals for a perfectly designed life.

The video performances are defined by constant repetitions which bring about a sense of gloomy discomfort and aggressive self-destructive and irrational behavior. The performing artists seem disoriented or numb and above all anxious, because there seems to be no space outside of their state of mind, they are unable to break free from the constrains.
There is no suggestion on how to untangle their unpleasant situation, no instant gratification, only compulsory repetitive behavior.

Artists and video works

• Ana Čigon: One more kick
  
  
• Vesna Bukovec: It will be OK
  
  
• Jasna Hribernik, Zmago Lenárdič: Grant me my wish
  
  
• Tomaž Furlan: Wear V-VIII
  
  

On-line exhibition

Ida Hiršenfelder (1977) is a critic for contemporary art, assistant of DIVA Station (Digital Video Archive) at SCCA, Centre for Contemporary Arts-Ljubljana. She collaborates with – Ljudmila – Ljubljana Digital Media Lab, and Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Arts, and publishes texts at Radio Student, Dnevnik Daily, Art Worlds, Maska, and in exhibition catalogues.

[Published August 5, 2011]