Naomi Kerkhove : : Vacation Spot in Gent

mon 18 - thu 21.03.2019

Gouvernement
gouvernementstraat 7
9000 Gent

website: www.vacationspotingent.com/

On the verge of digital and real life experiences is Vacation Spot in Gent by Federica Di Pietrantonio

Program
Mon 18.03 → 18:00-22:00 with Andrea Frosolini
Tue 19.03 → 18:00-22:00 with Filip Anthonissen
Wed 20.03 → 18:00-22:00 with Hilde Onis
Thu 21.03 → 18:00-22:00 with Naomi Kerkhove

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How thin is the line between our experiences in actual and virtual reality, and how different are they?

Vacation Spot in Gent questions that realness of ephemeral reality. Through incorporating videogames à la The Sims and Second Life, which she uses to collect fake memories and documentation of her work and life, Federica Di Pietrantonio releases a sensory dynamic between reality and its simulation.

The Rome-based painter is interested in our representation of reality, which is often influenced by its perception, and eager to deepen interrelationships between different experiences. Using painting as an interface between those different worlds, she wishes to make the viewer become more conscious of the virtual reality represented by a painting – or by a digital landscape in which we act as 21rst-century flaneurs.

What is usually fake in gaming now becomes real. The exhibition is a free space where each day a different artist is free to play, work and react to the virtual environment, while their avatar is projected. The result? A fictional playground overlapping different forms of reality, augmenting our sense of experiencing it and changing our gaze.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Because every invited artist interacts differently to the setting created by Di Pietrantonio, every evening is unique and has a singular atmosphere.

  • Andrea Frosolini
    Rome-based Andrea Frosolini researches the loss of one’s personality in the ever-changing contemporary society, which is, alongside its absurdity, subject to Frosolini’s frank but ironic critique. His artistic practice ranges from reality to virtualy and focuses on the massification of human personality in our commodified era.

  • Filip Anthonissen
    Filip Anthonissen tries to generate value in the invisibility, at the crossroads of illusion, reality and virtual reality. With 3D-animations he creates a unique, anonymous world, cherishing a desire to disappear or building a space which doesn’t want to exist.

  • Naomi Kerkhove
    Situated between visual art, textile, film, and performance is Naomi Kerkhove’s artistic practice, a gently nod to our condition humaine while seeking a harmony between existential loneliness and feelings of wonder stimulated by reality’s inherent beauty. She creates different worlds and both physically and mentally activates the space.

  • Hilde Onis
    Dutch-born Hilde Onis observes reality from that other angle, using sculptures, installations, video and performances as her tools. Her work metaphorically reflects on the subconscious relations created by people with objects and events. When are experiences personal and when universal? Originating from a constant investigation into disorienting situations, her practice serves as a personal reinterpretation of the original situation.