SWIPE RIGHT! Data Dating Desire
Curated by: Valentina Peri
Venue: iMAL Brussels
Running until: Oct 22, 2021 - Jan 9, 2022
With works by !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Adam Basanta, Crosslucid, Dries Depoorter, Elisa Giardina Papa, Tom Galle, John Yuyi & Moises Sanabria, Noemi Iglesias, Lancel/Maat, Joana Moll, Ingo Niermann & The Army Of Love, Eva Ostrowska, Dani Ploeger, Addie Wagenknecht & Pablo Garcia
What does it mean to love in the digital age? How are digital interfaces reshaping our personal relationships? What do new technologies imply for the future of the romantic sphere? How do screens affect our sexual intimacy and our desire for connection?
In terms of romance and intimacy, Internet and smartphones have generated new complexities that we are still trying to figure out. All these phenomena became hot-button in March 2020, when a global pandemic placed millions of people under total lockdown, enforcing to reconfigure most of social activities online and in a technology-mediated form. From online working to online partying, humans all over the planet tried to play with the discontents of social distancing, and to live the no-contact reality as the new normal.
This forced self-isolation and touch-less condition proved to be a significant driver for many people to move their romantic lives into the digital realm, inspiring new ways of courting, dating and catching, for both confirmed and novice users.
By bringing together the work of several international artists, the exhibition SWIPE RIGHT! Data, Dating, Desire attempts to explore new directions in contemporary romance and map the unprecedented connections between desire, emotion, technology, and economy in the post-pandemic world.
Further Information
Installationshots, 2021 by Isabelle Arthuis