Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1124848
THIS WEEK ART maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 JUNE 2019 4 The exhibition explicitly grasps at the assault of internet- enabled cultural simulacra. As a curator, how do you deal with the challenge of somehow crystallising – or at the very least, 'freeze-framing' for a short while – something which is by its very definition in a constant state of feverish flux? It's complicated, because the uncertainty pushes you to more conservative positions, drawing you to the categories that you absorbed from art history, but I don't think they apply anymore. So how do you approach the shifting landscape of visual cul- ture? I think that as a curator, my work is not only challenged by the images of our times, but also by the way systems of pro- duction and circulation affect temporary icons and symbols. I see how corporate interests in- vade our personal space, online and offline, and I react to visual contamination, mass creativity and the popularisation of cri- tique in art, in politics and in every other field of our society. Luckily, my work is not a soli- tary pursuit but a constant dia- logue with colleagues and artists around the world. For example, Face with Tears of Joy was in- formed by my conversation with Alexandra Pace, the found- er and director of Blitz, and by her recent work Corridorworld that I decided to include in the exhibition. As I answer your question, I also think of more private moments, like the first time I read the seminal essay Dispersion (2002) by American artist Seth Price, which shook my understanding of contem- porary art in the expanded field of general culture… and actual- ly, it can be easily found online! On that note, how would you say Face with Tears of Joy handles the multi-faceted nature of contemporary technology and communication? Did you seek to find some kind of through-line or commonality among the artists that make up the exhibition? While researching how glo- balisation and technology affect the way we communicate today, I realised 2019 is the twentieth anniversary of the first set of emojis, developed by Japanese interface designer Shigetaka Kurita. So I decided to dedicate the title of the exhibition to this This year, the world celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the emoji, for better or worse. In the wake of the seismic shift in communication signalled by such internet-based phenomena, curator Sara Dolfi Agostini speaks to TEODOR RELJIC about how the currently-running exhibition Face with Tears of Joy addresses our current cultural reality Can you feel this? "Emojis mark the sign of a cultural shift, from the exactitude of the written word to the playfulness of computer culture" Teodor Reljic Curator Sara Dolfi Agostini, posing with 'Gimme A Hug' by Rob Pruitt, which forms part of the Face with Tears of Joy exhibition. Photo by Alexandra Pace Simon Denny