13—28.05.2022
My Goals Are Bigger Than Yours: Exhibition

Cake

My goals are big­ger than yours.

After pro­bing the depths of the gig eco­no­my, the pre­ca­rious exhi­bi­ti­on My goals are big­ger than yours” is final­ly visi­ble in its com­ple­te form.

How can the cre­a­ti­ve entre­pre­neur sur­vi­ve in a world of exces­si­ve com­pe­ti­ti­on and under­paid labour? How does busi­ness ethics (neo­li­be­ral ethics in par­ti­cu­lar) rela­te to the figu­re of the artist/​designer? How does this chan­ge her habits or goals? How do artists res­pond to the­se challenges?

The exhi­bi­ti­on wants to ana­ly­se the con­se­quen­ces of neo­li­be­ral poli­cies on the indi­vi­du­als, and espe­ci­al­ly on the so-cal­l­ed cre­a­ti­ves”, mea­ning the broad ran­ge of (most­ly) free­lan­ce wor­kers ope­ra­ting in the fields of art and design. While the com­pe­ti­ti­on in the art field beco­mes more and more fier­ce, with incre­a­sin­gly scar­ce resour­ces for the pro­du­cers, the cre­a­ti­ves” find them­sel­ves in pre­ca­rious soci­al and eco­no­mic con­di­ti­ons. We, as artists and desig­ners, spend thou­sand of euros on our edu­ca­ti­on and pro­fes­si­o­nal devel­op­ment, stu­dy com­plex the­o­re­ti­cal issues and try to be enga­ged in artis­tic research” — among other things — but at the same time our pre­ca­ri­ty see­ms more often than not to be brac­ke­ted and set asi­de — even though the con­di­ti­ons of our pro­duc­ti­on pret­ty much sha­pe our artis­tic Products.

My Goals Are Bigger Than Yours” is a sur­vey of the­se con­di­ti­ons, whe­rein the artists appro­ach the afo­re­men­ti­o­ned issues from dif­fe­rent media and dif­fe­rent per­spec­ti­ves: humo­rous, iro­nic, serious, com­mit­ted, gro­tesque, frag­men­ta­ry and con­den­sed. The ques­ti­on then is: will you hire us?

This exhi­bi­ti­on is the result of Season #5 in Off the, Grid: My Goals Are Bigger Than Yours, orga­ni­zed by artists David Ghelli Santuliana, Valentino Russo, Cathleen Owens, Carmen Dusmet Carrasco & Arthur Cordier.


  • Davide Ghelli Santuliana

    Davide Ghelli Santuliana is a mul­ti­me­dia artist and researcher based in Amsterdam (NL). His prac­ti­ce spans across dif­fe­rent media, from moving-ima­­ges, to text, to sound design. In his research he is most­ly inte­rested in ana­ly­zing the effects of semio­ca­pi­ta­lism on the indi­vi­du­als, in its soci­al, eco­no­mic and poli­ti­cal effects, but also the inter­sec­ti­on bet­ween semio­ca­pi­ta­lism and artis­tic pro­duc­ti­on. For this rea­son, he often employs dif­fe­rent approp­ri­a­ti­on stra­te­gies — from a direct remix of found ima­ges, to cita­ti­on and re-enac­­te­­ment of exis­ting motives.



    Valentino Russo

    Valentino Russo is a visu­al artist based in The Hague (NL). He is inte­rested in the reu­se and re-con­tex­tu­a­­li­­za­­ti­on of ima­ges from onli­ne sour­ces — some­ti­mes mixed with ori­gi­nal mate­ri­al. This pro­cess mir­rors the end­less recy­cle of cul­tu­re that takes pla­ce in our soci­al-media based soci­e­ty, a lands­ca­pe charac­te­ri­zed by the impos­si­bi­li­ty to dis­tin­guish bet­ween real and fake, true and fal­se, right and wrong. Valentino also co-cura­­tes the artist-run spa­ce The Balcony in The Hague together with Arthur Cordier.


    Cathleen Owens

    Cathleen Owens is a visu­al artist and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons con­sul­tant cur­rent­ly based in The Hague (NL). Cathleen works with the sub­jects of iden­ti­ty and self-repre­­sen­ta­­ti­on, cre­a­ting nar­ra­ti­ves cen­te­red around per­for­ma­ti­ve pro­duc­ti­vi­ty and well-being. Owens also ser­ves as co-foun­­der and CEO of life­sty­le com­pa­ny Your Untapped Potential.


    Carmen Dusmet Carrasco

    Carmen Dusmet is a Spanish grap­hic desig­ner & visu­al artist based in The Hague. Her work explo­res prac­ti­ces of care through design. She is inte­rested in co-cre­a­­ting col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve metho­do­lo­gies of making and thin­king, with the sub­jects she works with. Beginning from per­so­nal expe­rien­ces, she focu­ses on how socio-eco­no­­mic struc­tu­res affect indi­vi­du­al and col­lec­ti­ve iden­ti­ties. Through col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons, video, grap­hic design, sound, and text, her work speaks of self-repre­­sen­ta­­ti­on, iden­ti­ty, labour, fami­ly and inter­ge­ne­ra­ti­o­nal debt. She under­stands her work as a con­tem­pla­ting lens of an uncer­tain futu­re; a tool to obser­ve— and reflect on —the unpre­dic­ta­bi­li­ty of sur­vi­val, gro­wing up, ageing, chan­ge and hope. Currently, she co-runs Home Cinema, an onli­ne tem­po­ra­ry video broad­cast that res­ponds to the ques­ti­on: what can we see together now that we can­not see each other? 


    Arthur Cordier

    […]

    I wor­ked in an adver­ti­sing agency,

    I hate advertising.

    From the expe­rien­ce remai­ned a con­stant inte­rest in the stu­dy of urban spa­ce and com­mer­ci­al tric­kery – bet­ter known in French as rou­blar­di­se; using the lan­gu­a­ge of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on against itself in a para­si­tic and often tau­to­lo­gi­cal manner.

    My prac­ti­ce tac­kles the logics and aes­the­tic of bureau­cra­cy, entre­pre­neur­ship and effi­ci­en­cy through rela­ti­o­nal, situ­a­ti­o­nal and con­tex­tu­al­ly-spe­ci­fic works. I reflect on the eco­no­my of artis­tic prac­ti­ce in a pro­duc­ti­on-dri­ven society.

    By reve­a­ling the eco­no­mic orien­ta­ti­on of urban spa­ces, and high­ligh­ting the omni­pre­sen­ce of com­mer­ci­al resour­ces. I use the effec­ti­ve­ness of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on to reve­al, under­li­ne and coun­ter­act its eve­ry­day functioning.

    How does artis­tic prac­ti­ce enga­ge in a world dri­ven by pro­duc­ti­vi­ty and the moni­to­ring of efficiency? 


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