ERNST LIMA 

"The purest definition of my image is the individuated consciousness of Infinite Being. It is who I am as a unique and distinct personality embedded in a universal consciousness,  my expressed self that is localized within time and space. The Translation of my virtual presence and the extent of that, here, fragmented for you! It is my existence as a free will entity that can think, post and act with or apart from higher (artificial) intelligence." 

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CHURCH OF EGO

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I_WANT_TO_BE_THE_ATTITUDE_OF_MY_SOCIAL_MEDIA_ACCOUNT is my contribution to the group exhibition  „Church of Ego“.

Invited by 280A, the artists were confronted with the question: how do we deal with the (virtual) living outside of our bodies? 

 

The artist collective 280A underwent an experiment in virtual spiritualism – but instead of thinking of transcending the individual into the cloud, the collective once again explored new ways of a symbiosis, where the artists’ egos merge into a collective representation. 

 

The exhibition with the title “Church of Ego” is a project, on which’s end the artists’ ego is steadily eradicated in order to build a collective body, a collective soul. As a preparation for the exhibition, the participating artists underwent a 7-days virtual retreat in summer 2019: A virtual reality seminar provided theoretical input and applied knowledge and confronted the artists with their egos, providing them a base to overcome it for sake of collectiveness. 

This collectiveness became subject of self-sacralization:
In an experimental constellation of curating and exhibiting the produced works of the “retreat”, a collage-like installation, consisting of photographic and sculptural elements opens the topic of post-internet art practice, queer self-staging and the question of the (artist) ego. The central piece of the exhibition is a kind of font that invites visitors to meditate and contemplate about the virtual self, the post-human spirit, and draw a connection between spirituality and digitalization. 

In addition, each artist was invited to create an individual work  that relates to the idea of the virtual soul, human relics or shrines – this may be seen either as a ritualistic object or a reference to spiritual practices strongly connected with or translated to a virtual/digital contemporary nowness. Taking into account methods and tools from ancient spiritual practices and following a strict regime of the same given conditions (in dimension and materiality), these newly created artifacts ask how we deal with the (virtual) living outside of our bodies. 

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Installationviews @ U10 Artspace Belgrade

11/2019

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