As it were
As it were, Sang Jijia’s first creation for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, is about communication – about the joy of getting through to someone else, but also about everything that gets lost or is misunderstood. As humans, we share the same space but are detached from one another. We know what we want to say, but intentions can become confused.

Avatars
For this installation, So Kanno + yang02 composed all kinds of differently sized objects, including a telephone, a traffic cone, a plaster figure, a car, and a plant. Cameras, microphones, monitors and microcomputers are embedded in everyday objects arranged in the exhibition space, and connected to the Internet. Visitors can experience the work by logging in to / “riding“ each object via a web browser. Those objects exist as substitutes of – yet together with – real human beings (the visitors) in the same real environment that is subject to physical laws, rather than operating in a virtual space. Against the backdrop of the age of IoT, where all kinds of things are connected through networks, and artificial intelligence is about to mature, this work observes the new relationships that emerge when inorganic, non-autonomous objects transform into persons that act and perceive the world according to their own intentions.

Александра Беллиссимо
Female Imitation
She was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. where she received her BFA in photography. Her body of work strongly revolves around the theory of “making” pictures instead of simply, “taking” pictures. She executes her visual intentions through incorporating traditional collaging techniques, as well as digital manipulation to each surreal photograph.

Disconnect

Female narcissism obviously is a misogynistic concept. “Being a feminist is about defeating, fighting those ideas. But actually, what a lot of gender studies has been about is looking into what’s masculine, figuring out what masculinity is, and how to conform to it maybe. Feminism’s ideal is a middle class white butch. ‘Don’t do feminine things.’ This excludes so many ethnicities, and models of femininity,” says Uddenberg. Her sculptures currently on view at the 9th Berlin Biennale explicitly do not follow this doctrine. Their stylized bodies are caricatures of what a “woman” “looks like,” yet their hyper-femme physique, positioning and accessories capture something about the way we look at ourselves. They are both object and subject. They turn you on, yet they repulse you. Their agency is palpable, but their intentions are intangible. “I’m also very alienated from femininity,” says Uddenberg.