12. April – 19. Mai 2018
jevouspropose#1

For jevouspropose#1, the independant curator Lars Willumeit proposes Discipula, a young Milan artist collective consisting of MFG Paltrinieri (social psychologist), Mirko Smerdel (visual artist) and Tommaso Tanini (photographer).

Lars Willumeit chose to present an excerpt of „How Things Dream“, an ongoing project by Discipula that uses the brand identity and corporate communication strategies of AURA, a fictional tech corporation, to imagine and explore the consequences of today’s growing relationship between technology, neoliberalism and new forms of control. By adopting and retooling the language and mechanisms of advertising, „How Things Dream“ envisions a transnational corporation, AURA, whose power permeates all aspects of everyday life.
Through IoT (Internet of Things) applications and the analysis of big data as a source of information on patterns of human behaviour, AURA in fact provides essential services in areas such as domotics, healthcare, security, education and governance.

For jevouspropose, DIscipula transforms the office space into a showroom aimed at presenting Morpheus, the most experimental and advanced manifestation of AURA.
Morpheus consists in a technology capable of extracting and displaying stills from people’s dreams, which are then made available to be shared on a dedicated social network platform created and managed by AURA itself.

The content of the show consists of advertisements, documentation of public interventions and graphics providing an introduction to Morpheus and its characteristics. In addition, visitors to the show are invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire recording attitudes towards dreams that will become part of an ongoing archive.
A revolutionary technology like Morpheus represents a metaphor of two interconnected phenomena: capitalism’s hunger for information and the impossibility for many individuals not only to recognise, but also to contain such invasiveness disguised as innovation.

Lars Willumeit
Lars Willumeit is a German social anthropologist based in Zurich, Switzerland. He works as an independent curator and author, as well as head of department for Fachklasse Fotografie at F+F School for Art and Design in Zurich. Having completed degrees in Social Anthropology (LSE, London) and Curatorial Studies (ZHdK, Zurich), his interests are in photography, documentarisms, regimes of representation and visual cultures. Lars has worked within the field of photography in different modes since 1993. Recent curatorial and editorial projects include: Unfamiliar Familiarities — Outside Views on Switzerland at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur, 2017; Crisis? What Crisis?! edition of Krakow Photomonth 2016 as chief curator; Beyond Evidence: An Incomplete Narratology of Photographic Truths, Quad, 2015; Fabrik, German Pavilion curated by Florian Ebner, Venice, 2015; and Deposit by Yann Mingard, 2014. More infos: www.larswillumeit.com

Discipula
Discipula is an Italian collective operating in the field of contemporary visual research founded by MFG Paltrinieri, Mirko Smerdel and Tommaso Tanini in 2013. Working across a range of practices - varying from art installations, performances and publications to workshops and lectures - Discipula focuses on the exploration of the role and uses of images in the contemporary mediascape while reflecting on the act of looking as a form of political consciousness.
Discipula's work have been exhibited internationally at Centre Photographie Geneva, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam, Krakow Photomonth, Matildenhohe Darmstadt, Photo 50 - London Art Fair, Kunsthalle Budapest, Tokyo Institute of Photography and more. Discipula is the recipient of various awards including Premio Level 0 Art Verona 2017, Premio Fondazione Francesco Fabbri 2016 and Les Rencontres d’Arles, Author Book Award 2015.
More infos: www.discipulaeditions.com

jevouspropose
jevouspropose is a curatorial series by Sabina Kohler and accomplices.
Several times a year, jevouspropose invites someone (an accomplice, a personality) to propose an artist with a specific group of works that are close to the heart of the proposer. The works will be installed in the room of jevouspropose, celebrated with an opening and remain on view for a while. At the same time the respective presentation is expanded and continued in virtual space: On jevouspropose's Instagram account, the proposer and the artist will have a chat, a visual ping-pong on the works and themes on display (www.instagram.com/je_vous_propose)