Britney X
Rest in peace simulation
by Vanessa A. Opoku and Philisha Kay
Photo: Vanessa A. Opoku
08-10 JUNE • 15.00 - 23.00 P.M.
virtual reality installation • Lounge • English
The ever-evolving complexities and demands of contemporary capitalism have left many navigating a state of limbo, constantly edging a breakdown in a perpetual compulsion to increase, improve and intensify in order to remain afloat.
Within this framework, Vanessa A. Opoku and Philisha Kay are exploring the potentials of escapism into virtual realities. REST IN PEACE invites the audience to enter states of relaxation through detachment from their physical bodies in several mediated simulations, co-created with the interpretation of artificial intelligence and experienceable in virtual 360° environments.
Within them, the audience is asked to engage in different activities that explore the nagging feelings of anxiety that states of inactivity can produce in our hyperproductive environments and to critically reflect on the individual situatedness of (their own) resting bodies and the privileges implicated in withdrawing from (over)work.
REST IN PEACE points to the entanglements of time and notions of resourcefulness and explores the increasing difficulty of shutting down, even if only for a moment.
Within this framework, Vanessa A. Opoku and Philisha Kay are exploring the potentials of escapism into virtual realities. REST IN PEACE invites the audience to enter states of relaxation through detachment from their physical bodies in several mediated simulations, co-created with the interpretation of artificial intelligence and experienceable in virtual 360° environments.
Within them, the audience is asked to engage in different activities that explore the nagging feelings of anxiety that states of inactivity can produce in our hyperproductive environments and to critically reflect on the individual situatedness of (their own) resting bodies and the privileges implicated in withdrawing from (over)work.
REST IN PEACE points to the entanglements of time and notions of resourcefulness and explores the increasing difficulty of shutting down, even if only for a moment.
by
Vanessa A. Opoku
Vanessa A. Opoku (*1992) is a visual artist living and working in Berlin. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem and graduated in 2021 in the field of artistic photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig with a Diploma in Fine Arts. She is currently pursuing her post-grad with Tina Bara at the HGB Leipzig. She has been a scholarship holder of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation since 2014 and in 2022 she won the gute aussichten Prize for Young German Photography. In her artistic practice, digital media, photogrammetry and AI form the starting point with which she negotiates the boundaries of mixed reality and finds alliances between art, science and technology.
Philisha Kraatz / Philisha Kay
Philisha Kraatz / Philisha Kay’s artistic practice explores subjectivities in verbal- and visual language. In the nexus between cultural critique, technology analysis and sexuality studies, her research is invested in counternarratives around the construction of identity and the premise of self-determination. In particular, she is interested in the potential of (virtual) imaginaries and digital technologies as subversive tools for a queer actualization of self and the aesthetics of resistance through gendered embodiment. Philisha Kay lives in Amsterdam and Berlin.
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