Invitation / Einladung
Sa. 04.04.2015, 20.00 Uhr / 8pm
UNCANNY VALLEY
Eun Ji Kim
Kaori Yamashita
Vera GaleÅev
Do artworks that ask us to project the human figure onto them simply
deliver the currency that is currently most desirable -subjectivity, affects,
and human competences? (Isabelle Graw)
The use of dolls seems to suggests a different conception of art in general
â not as something made by a few specialists for public display, but as a
creative and imaginative form of practice every human being can and
should take part in. (Stefan Deines)
The 20th century has often been defined as the century of the body: the
body becomes the center of the artistic reflexion and analysis taking
multiple forms of expressions. The body of the artist itself is transformed
in a physical place of intervention and creation, as well as the body of the
Other assumes abstract nuances of general identities, changing to an
anonymous symbol identifying the globalism of the human race. This
tendency to interrogate the body, its potentials, limits and ambiguities has
keeping on going during the current first decennials of the 21st century, as
a never ending resource of artistic and social exploration.
The body is also in the center of the exhibition Uncanny Valley, displaying
the works of the Serbian, South Korean and Japanese artists Vera
GaleÅev, Eun Ji Kim and Kaori Yamashita. Here, video, photography and
sculpture come together to celebrate the physical variety of
interconnections and perceptions about the three-dimensional object,
which is a melting pot of antithesis: familiar and unfamiliar, peculiar and
ordinary, alive and decaying. Are we looking at human bodies or at
mannequins? Are they avatars or real subjects?
According to the theory of the âuncanny valleyâ, the more one object is
similar to a human figure, the more the viewer will consider it friendly and
will relate to it; however, if the objectâs appearance is too close to a real
body, the human brain will bug, while not understanding anymore the
nature of what has been looking at. Perceiving it rather as a disguised
enemy then a friend, the brainâs viewer will reject it. Used to explain the
duality of emotional states facing human-like robots, dolls or other
anthropomorphic objects, the uncanny valleyâs theory plays between
blurred limits. In fact, the subtle line dividing the crucial moment when the
brain switches from feelings of empathy and attraction to dismissal and
disgust is hard to trace.
Uncanny Valley wants us to walk into this indistinct territory of the mind,
pushing us close to the limits of our dreams and fears: Vera GaleÅev, Eun
Ji Kim and Kaori Yamashita present works investigating the strangeness
of the body and the awareness of the object.
(Text by Elisa Rusca)
Both quotes are from Art and Subjecthood â The return of the human
figure in semiocapitalism,Frankfurt am Main: Stenberg Press, 2011
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