Within the framework of: Post-Capital: Art and the Economics of the Digital Age
- Power | 22.10.2021 | 16.00 : Sven Biscop, Sarah Khabirpour & Geert Lovink
- Hacker | 04.11.2021 | 16.00 : Jacques Putz, Stéphane Duguin & Caterina Riva
- Surplus | 24.11.2021 | 14.00 : Markus Missien, Hannes Grassegger & Ludwig Engel
Live audio stream on: mudam.com/clandestine-talks + thinking-head.net
Lara Favaretto's Thinking Head was presented in the Central Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. First, a selection of objects that the artist has collected over the past twenty-five years were displayed in the Central Pavilion. Second, a series of ‘clandestine talks’ on single-word subjects inspired by these objects took place. Finally, a vapour emitted from the roof of the Pavilion partially obscured its façade.
The series of ‘clandestine talks’ are intended to deconstruct fifty ‘key words’ via a hidden discourse that takes place – according to the artist’s instructions – in a ‘bunker-like’ environment (an undisclosed, protected, and soundproof location within or close to the institution). For Post-Capital, Favaretto has selected three words: surplus, power, and hacker. The speakers are rigorously selected by the artist, connecting a variety of disciplines and areas of expertise to bring together different perspectives on the subjects.
Favaretto wants to turn a museum into a ‘thinking machine’. Furthermore, her intervention functions as a form of institutional critique, obscuring the museum’s architecture and dissolving its cultural authority from our view.