PARS PRO TOTO

Online Screenings by peer to space

Pars Pro Toto is peer to space’s online series showcasing video art works which focus on very personal stories narrated by the artist or by the protagonist. The works are embedded in a thematic context of cultural, social, political, or environmental issues. A new iteration focusing on a further topic will be released quarterly. 

Pars Pro Toto creates a digital space for users to be silent observers and to simultaneously witness the social complexity of the world. By discovering artworks based on individual experiences yet presented in a broader context, the series demonstrates how the personal symbolizes a part of the whole, a pars pro toto. The personal story seen as an extract of an overall reality becomes visible and fits into the mosaic of the collective experience. Exploring larger issues through the individual lens activates awareness within the viewers. This leads to a deeper and more empathetic understanding of today’s global social conditions. The series promotes the importance of freedom of expression and the necessity of providing a voice for everyone as a basis for a caring and participatory society. 

Desire Is Something Boundless

(Online from January 1 until March 31, 2022)

Works by Will Fredo, Inés Moldavsky, Elisa Giardina Papa

Curated by Gloria Aino Grzywatz and Valentina Peri

The eighth edition of PARS PRO TOTO is based on the overarching concept of human desire. The stories told by artists Will Fredo, Inés Moldavsky and Elisa Giardani Papa address the ever-changing power relations between humans and non-humans, highlighting grievances and transcending spatial, political and gender boundaries. In The Men Behind the Wall, Israeli filmmaker Inés Moldavsky makes herself the subject of her investigation and, between virtual phone calls and concrete encounters, experiences the physical space in Palestine that is personally foreign and even forbidden to her. In his work Sexual Healers TV (Episodes 1-3) the artist Will Fredo dedicates himself to the thematic field of sex work and body politics in the form of a webcast channel, bringing subjective perspectives into the light of discourse. In Technologies of care/worker 7 - bot?virtual boyfriend, Elisa Giardani Papa illustrates the invisible labor force of online workers and negotiates the question of desire on the disembodied level between fictional individuals and the human ego. Inherent in all three works are questions of authenticity and institutionalized notions. Based on the title of the work, which is taken from a quotation from Ovid, the works refer to the fact that desire is able to transcend various forms of man-made boundaries. With Inés Moldavsky on the geographical level, with Elisa Giardani Papa on the level between human and non-human and with Will Fredo in the oscillation between coming out and leading a double life. Can desire really be something boundless?

Will Fredo (PRT/DE), Sexual Healers TV (Episodes 1-3), video, 54:47 min., 2020

Sexual Healers TV (Episodes 1-3) deals with histories of sexualities and their political dimensions, especially in the Global South. Linked to that is the oscillation between  a coming out and the leading of a double life, between desire and man-made, supposed boundaries. The artwork pieces together a semi-fictional narrative that start with the artist Will Fredo’s audition for a porn movie in Medellin, followed by interviews with Erik, a sex worker and Leo, a criminal law attorney/OnlyFans star in Bogota. Through the artist’s investigation into the sex industry in the Americas and interviews and performance with two “sexual healers”, the semi-fictional video addresses an intersection of topics including sex outsourcing, sex workers' subjectivities and rights, technology as a tool for democratizing pleasure, among others. Central to SHTV  is how the artist engages with the artistic and social practices of othering subjects. Will Fredo’s various embodiments throughout the episodes also put into question institutionalised notions of respectability, power dynamics, epistemology and legitimacy.

www.willfredo.cc

Inés Moldavsky (ARG/ISR), The Man behind the Wall, video, 28:16 min., 2018

The Men Behind the Wall is an experimental approach to current social issues and intimate interpersonal relationships. In making herself the subject of her work, Inés Moldavski offers a unique view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Using the swipe function of the dating app Tinder, the Israel-based artist makes personal contact with (Palestinian) men living on the other side of the wall. Some of the men show themselves, others read poems. Again and again the question of one's own needs, desire and the possibilities of sharing this desire comes up in the conversation. In this way, The Men Behind the Wall shows the absurdity of power and segregation, but also of stereotypes and gender roles in the digital age. Where do the boundaries (of desire) begin and where do they end?

Instagram: ines.moldavsky

Elisa Giardina Papa (IT/US), Technologies of care/worker 7 - bot?virtual boyfriend, video, 3:06 min., 2016

Technologies of Care documents new ways in which service and affective labor are being outsourced via internet platforms, exploring topics such as empathy, precarity, and immaterial labor.  The video visualizes the invisible workforce of online caregivers. The workers interviewed in Technologies of Care include an ASMR artist, an online dating coach, a fetsh video performer and fairytale author, a social media fan-for-hire, a nail wrap designer, and a customer service operator. Based in Brazil, Greece, the Philippines, Venezuela, and the United States, they work as anonymous freelancers, connected via third-party companies to customers around the globe. Through a variety of websites and apps, they provide clients with customized goods and experiences, erotc stmulaton, companionship, and emotional support. The stories collected in Technologies of Care include those of non-human caregivers as well. One of its seven episodes, Worker 7 - Bot? Invisible Boyfriend/Girlfriend, documents the artist's three-month-long “affair” with an interactive chatbot and negotiates the question of desire on the disembodied level, between fictional individuals and the human ego.

www.elisagiardinapapa.org

Previous PARS PRO TOTO iterations:

The Personal is Political (2020)

Home Is Where Heart Is (2020)

Mirror, Mirror (2020)

Hou Lang Tui Qian Lang (后浪推前浪) (2021)

Another Person In You (2021)

Giving Contours To Shadows (2021)

Dreams Of Solidarity (2021)

Desire is Something Boundless (2022)

My Body, My Choice? (2022)