Glitz; Another Version of Tomorrow

Coco Capitán, Man Who Bought The Bank of England

Can there be another version of tomorrow? Are you absorbed and sheltered by all the glitz of today’s media? In today’s 21st century society dictated by the media, where the truth can be manipulated by the powers that be. If our actions and lives have already been imposed, then what is it that we look to live for? Can there be any form of social responsibility if we’re constantly bombarded with “fake news” in a “post-truth” era? Multimedia artists, Coco Capitán and the duo, Metahaven, Vince Kruk and Daniel van der Velden have recently curated their own multimedia creations to question all this.

In “Is It Tomorrow Yet?”, London-based artist Coco Capitán uncovers the interdependence of “reality and perception” and the necessity of art to keep in touch with our emotions and in the “here and now”. Coaxing us to question the human precondition to living for the precarious future of tomorrow. She captures the casual and almost average scenes of the world that we all live in, and in particular the scenes that she notices about the politics of the modern contemporary society. The exhibition, hosted for the first time in Asia at the Daelim Museum, Seoul, South Korea, will include handwritten aphorisms such as “What are we going to with all this future?” and “Common sense is not that common.” Through the use of her talents that employ multimedia techniques to demonstrate, reflect and resonate throughout the varying disciplines in the 150 works being presented, she pursues the ever questionable philosophies and curiosities in which lives are lived… I mean, we do live in an age where the consumption of images are inevitable, and to put it simply, Coco Capitán addresses all our doubts of the uncertain future that fills us with anxiety, a future that can often be strange and overshadowed, but one in which she values by using the stories of people to share a visual dialogue and remind us to live for the present moment as it happens.

Coco Capitán, Angel Walks With Me

Furthermore, Metahaven, the Netherland-based multimedia artists, designers and photographers, Vince Kruk and Daniel van der Velden, have similarly curated an expansive multimedia and maximalist exhibition titled VERSION HISTORY, with much focus on the specific work named Eurasia (Questions on Happiness). Commissioned by the ICA, the large video wall amalgamates “science fiction, essay, poem and folktale” to examine the platitudes of cultural and political narratives in the circumstances where our beliefs and emotions can fluctuate depending on the “objective notions of reality”, and demonstrating complex layers that are the conditions of the neo-medieval interface of the political scope, incompatible timescales and reversals of linear duration.

Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018.

Since the conception of Metahaven, they have used their skills in design as a means of investigating “information networks, platform infrastructure and political geographies” and developing physical enclaves such as that of Sealand and Wikileaks. Curating multifaceted layers of poetic and cinematic elements through their speculative analysis in their work is a key part of their artistic expression.

And if for a time we have looked to literature, world leaders and the media to seek the truth of our existence, in this global and international community, art has and always will be the foundations of culture and history to reflect the society of the time in which it is made. So as our generation gets busier and even more anxious in the fast-paced technology-driven world, we neglect to remember that our lives only last a short second, but these upcoming exhibitions and collections will surely be a reminder to us all to question what our lives have been, are, and shouldn’t be about.

So make sure to free up your schedule and save these dates!

Metahaven: Version History
3rd October 2018 – 6th January 2019
ICA, London

…and if you happen to be in Seoul this Autumn/ Winter:

Coco Capitán: Is it tomorrow yet?
2nd August 2018 – 27th January 2019
Daelim Museum, Seoul

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