Screens, affections and stages

The street is now lonely, anonymous territory. Screens have become the primary means of everyday communication. A stage that is both a boundary and a conduit to other faces multiplied in other windows; projections of our desire to connect with others. It is also an arena for expressive research into the many different facets of our subjectivity, for experimentation with identity and self-image. An endless array of filters and effects are available to chart and change our faces. We see this in the work of Flavia Da Rin, who explores infinite variations of herself through self-portraits and digital photography. A photographer, performer, DIY stylist and digital painter, she works in ritual private solitude at home and in the studio, pointing her lens at different wigs and accessories or trying out expressions and body movements that she then cuts, pastes and modifies on her computer, creating new characters that are also representations of the artist herself.

Our bodies are more technological than ever: a hologram that appears on the screens of friends, family and work colleagues, one that sends a notification asking permission before appearing. We communicate through interference and distortion, often with our faces pixelated or robotic sounding voices indicating that something is wrong with our connection. Society has shifted onto the network, education to Zoom and news, both genuine and fake, has gone viral. Our screen gaze has become more real than ever. We are torn between exhausting hyper-connectivity, the need or obligation to be productive, and procrastination. The lock-down gives rise to contradictory emotions ranging from social phobias to keenly missing the people with whom we would usually spend our days. Meanwhile, the everyday normality we used to know seems ever further away. In its stead we seek to create dynamic virtual alternatives through which to form our emotional bonds.

If, under the current circumstances, images dominate the way we socialize, what role does art play in this coming together of technology, subjectivity and emotion? How can art help us to stay together via a screen? Are we simply trying to transfer our lives into the virtual realm or are we creating new forms of feeling that will change the way we act in the future?

Laura Hakel, curator at Museo de Arte Moderno