The Telenational Dream

Exhibition & Cinema screenings
12.09-16.10.2016
Kino Iluzjon, Warsaw

Artists: Barbis Ruder, Bernadette Weigl, Ewa Stern, Monira Al Qadiri, Britta Thie, Zuzanna Janin, Maria Drăghici, Ioana Păun, The Bureau of Melodramatic Research (Alina Popa, Irina Gheorghe), CONGLOMERATE (Dafna Maimon, Christopher Kline, Derek Howard, Ethan Hayes-Chute, Sol Calero), Postspectacle (Iuliana Stoianescu, Florin Flueraş, Ion Dumitrescu), Roee Rosen, Xandra Popescu, Radu Jude

Assistant curator: Karolina Bielawska

The Telenational Dream program calls into question the nature and function of television as a frame of interpretation for current social and political realities, at a moment of the medium’s rapid decline. For a long time of taking its inspiration from the arts, grandpa mainstream media seems to be facing a revenge, with a record number of artists inserting themselves within its formats, aesthetics and logic.

There are a couple of possible reasons for this phenomenon: a late re-digestion of Debord’s society of the spectacle thanks to media’s coverage of politics, the insertion of more and more participative formats in reality television, social media’s contribution to hyper-individualisation, the spreading of the ‘expert’ figure, the emergence of accelerationist and speculative philosophy, the blurring of boundaries between art and advertising, but more than all of the above the art’s tendency to quickly process nostalgia.

Introduced as televised experiences taking specific popular formats, the works use morally problematic strategies like theft, detournement, lying, objectification and self commodification for a less problematic purpose: the emancipation of the spectator as a universal figure in the arts and society.

Screenings:

FRIDAY, September 30th
7-10 pm – Black Room
Barbis Ruder, Ewa Stern, Bernadette Weigl – “Carwash” (2012)
Monira Al Qadiri – “Soap” (2014)
Britta Thie – “Three Infomercials” (2016)
Zuzanna Janin – “The TEMPEST (EPILOGUE of the video serial MAJKA FROM THE MOVIE)” (2012)
Maria Draghici & Ioana Păun – “Romania Enterprise” (2013-2014)

SATURDAY, October 1st
7-10 pm – Black Room
Bureau of Melodramatic Research (Alina Popa and Irina Gheorghe) – “Protect Your Heart at Work” (2012)
CONGLOMERATE (Sol Calero, Ethan Hayes-Chute, Derek Howard, Christopher Kline, Dafna Maimon) – “Block One” & “Block Two” (2016)

SUNDAY, October 2nd
7-10 pm – Black Room
Iuliana Stoenescu, Florin Flueras, Ion Dumitrescu (Postspectacle) – “2012, The Ultimate Apocalypse at OTV (Mirror TV)” (2010)
Roee Rosen – “Hilarious” (2010)
Xandra Popescu – “Pornceptual” (2014)
Radu Jude – “The Happiest Girl in The World” (2009)

*All movies are English subtitled

Project financed by the Romanian Cultural Institute (Institutul Cultural Român) through CentenArt Program.

Curator: Larisa Crunțeanu
Collaborators: Karolina Bielawska, Ioana Răileanu
Graphics by: Casper Fitzhue

Partners:
Kino Iluzjion, Filmoteka Narodowa, lokal_30, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, A-I-R Laboratory, Stroboskop, KEM, White Wave, Alexandru Dan Photography, Romanian Artists Union, Conglomerate, Mămăligă de Varșovia, Mortoci Film, Vivarto

Thank you: Karolina Bielawska, Ioana Răileanu, Xandra Popescu, Veronica Popescu, Eduard Dedu, Iulian Stanciu, Marius Popa, Ada Solomon, Daniela Oprică, Alexandru Dan, Dana Andrei, Marta Ziółek.