“The addic­ti­ve for­ce of the inter­net is real, and who knows this bet­ter than Aurélie Bayad. In a post-inter­net world, whe­re IRL incre­a­sin­gly mer­ges with URL, new pos­si­bi­li­ties of being seep into our dai­ly lives. In her ver­sa­ti­le art prac­ti­ce, Bayad uses video, pho­to­grap­hy and per­for­man­ce to con­front us with the mes­sy and dir­ty thoughts and desi­res of our hyper­re­al (what is real?) iden­ti­ties, care­ful­ly con­struc­ted to live up to new rules and expecta­ti­ons, set by the digi­tal sphe­re of fake likes and dark web ero­tics. Bayad uses her came­ra, her body and that of others, and her sub­jec­ti­ve wri­tings to cre­a­te a new aes­the­tic lan­gu­a­ge for the new desi­res of our con­tem­po­ra­ry cul­tu­re. In slimy and gooey, ugly and dis­gus­ting, che­ap and glit­tery envi­ron­ments, we watch her unfold the per­so­nae of her filmed and pho­to­grap­hed sub­jects (often herself). She hides her port­ray­ed sub­jects behind the soft nos­tal­gic hue of the kitschy cul­ti­va­ti­on of the eigh­ties and nine­ties, she shoots her films with erra­tic and ecsta­tic sequen­ces, gives them heart-poun­ding sound­tracks, and fear­les­sly looks back into the lens, as if asking us: ​‘What is your real per­so­na­li­ty? What is real beau­ty? What is your true desi­re, your fetish? Who do you want me to see?’ With her other­world­ly beau­ty standards, her vis­ce­ral and dis­gor­ging, but color­ful encoun­ters with food and other quo­ti­di­an sub­stan­ces, and her frank inter­ro­ga­ti­ons of inti­ma­cy, giving and recei­ving, love and abu­se – so per­ti­nent that they can make you trem­ble with self-doubt – Aurélie Bayad sha­res with us her search towards per­so­nal groun­ding in this con­fu­sing net­wor­ked world. ” text by Zeynep Kubat