The Medusa v. The Odalisque Event

A collaboration between Dorota Walentynowicz & Patrícia J. Reis
Opening: 30th July, 18h-22h
The exhibition will be open for visitors between 31.07 and 20.08.2021 by appointment: patricia.reis@mzbaltazarslaboratory.org

*** “The Medusa v. The Odalisque” - B.S. Latrodectus Mactans Productions. Uncredited cast; zone-plating laser holography by James O. Incadenza and Urquhart Ogilvie, Jr.; holographic fight choreography by Kenjiru Hirota courtesy of Sony Entertainment-Asia; 78 mm; 29 minutes; black and white; silent w/ audience-noises appropriated from network broadcast television. Mobile holograms of two visually lethal mythologic females duel with reflective surfaces onstage while a live crowd of spectators turn to stone. LIMITED CELLULOID RUN; PRIVATELY RE-RELEASED ON MAGNETIC VIDEO BY LATRODECTUS MACTANS PRODUCTIONS

“The Medusa v. The Odalisque” is the artists’ ongoing research towards a critical reflection on the subject of visual pleasure in the age of digital entities. The exhibition consists of a collection of objects and images which engage the visitors in a spectacle of gazes.

About the artists:

Dorota Walentynowicz (PL) is a visual artist based in Gdansk. The area of her artistic and theoretical interests concerns the intersection of photography, installation and performance. Her work is characterised by the continuous process of dialectic feedback between technology and nature, theory and practice, logic and intuitive cognition. She is interested in analogue methods of producing photographic images. Through them she aims to analyze and illustrate the role that photography plays in maintaining the hegemony of visuality and the way in which visuality guides the social relations today.

Patrícia J. Reis (PT) is an installation artist based in Vienna whose practice encompasses different formats and media to examine the human and non-human relationship with contemporary technology. Through an ongoing investigation that destabilises the boundaries between gender, science, technology, magic and spiritual beliefs, she explores questions “How do we believe in machines?” and “How technology is shaping us bodily?”. In her complex installations she often appeals to the visitor’s sensoriality in an intimate and sensual way, encouraging them to become active participants.