BEYOND CONTROL – How surveillance crept into our lives
Exhibition at Großer Wasserspeicher, Prenzlauer Berg
15 visual artists present works, including video, photography, and sound, on the topic of surveillance at the exhibition Beyond Control.
ARTISTS*: Andie Riekstina, Avery Edelman, Edward Nurton, Frauke Decoodt, Gabriel Ross-Pelat, Giuseppe D’Addurno, Jehan Sheikh, Juliane Röthig, Lisa Martini, Maren Marie Søndergaard, Maria Martí, Netta Mattila, Rebecca Hernández Gomis, Roberto Cicala, Sara Queirolo
DIRECTION: Eva Maria Ocherbauer
The world is changing and it is changing rapidly. One of the things that have evolved is the ways in which we are controlled and surveilled. The present-day has become closer to a science fiction piece than it is to reality. Through the use of biometric technologies and algorithms our actions, thoughts, and appearances are being converted into data – stripping our identity into 1s and 0s. This information is being carefully examined and studied by governments and corporations. The more they know – the further we slip into a state of constant social control.
Beyond Control is a group of 15 visual artists with individual interpretations of surveillance. The exhibition holds over a dozen bodies of work, all exploring different aspects of surveillance. Topics such as artificial intelligence, social media, relationships, identity, and gender are all intricately woven together by Eva Maria Ocherbauer. The project invites the audience to reflect upon their own freedom or lack thereof. It is a call to arms to rescue our agency in a time where the future looks exponentially bleak.
The collective, which includes international artists*, analyzes the issue of surveillance from different angles. Their common goal is to make the viewer think about how much control systems determine our lives, even if we are not aware of it. The different contributions are linked in a common dialogue and stimulate the viewer in many ways. The means used by the artists are diverse and will be combined, from photography to video, soundscaping, drawings, and installations of contemporary art, physically leading the viewer into a labyrinth – which the Großer Wasserspeicher as an exhibition venue already very well suggests.
