Filter Bubble: An 89plus exhibition
October 31, 2015–February 14, 2016
Imponderable: The Archives of Tony Oursler
Imponderable is an extensive research project that investigates the personal collection of American artist Tony Oursler. It is a remarkable trove of more than 2,500 photographs, publications and unique objects, tracking a social, spiritual and intellectual history dating back to the early 18th century. The resulting exhibition presents a new film produced by Oursler and presented in 4D with theatrical special effects as well as a reading room with projected lectures by Noam Elcott, Branden W. Joseph, Stephanie O’Rourke, and Oursler and the extensive catalogue of the artist’s archive.
The exhibition, curated by Tom Eccles (Director, CCS Bard College, New York) and Beatrix Ruf (Director, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) on behalf of the LUMA Foundation, was first presented at the Les Rencontres d’Arles photography festival in Arles in the summer of 2015 and will travel internationally. The 655-page publication, designed by Zak Keyes and produced in collaboration with JRP/Ringier, extensively illustrates the Oursler archive and is accompanied by scholarly texts by Branden W. Joseph, Noam Elcott, Pascal Rousseau and others.
Commissioned and produced by the LUMA Foundation for the Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France.
Opening event
Saturday, October 31, 3–4pm
Tony Oursler in conversation with Branden Joseph (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, Columbia University, New York), introduced by curators Tom Eccles and Beatrix Ruf.
Filter Bubble: An 89plus exhibition curated by Simon Castets and Hans Ulrich Obrist
“The Filter Bubble” is a term coined by Eli Pariser in his 2011 book of the same name, which designates the way Internet users are increasingly directed to a personalized information landscape through an algorithmic editing of web content. Filter Bubble marks 89plus’s interest in translating three years of research into an exhibition format harnessing the reflective nature of its long-term inquiry. In presenting work by over 40 international artists, writers and technologists, Filter Bubble introduces a selection of pointed responses to the perennial dilemma of blissful ignorance, paradoxically heightened by the pursuit of relevance in an ever-growing mass of data.
In 1989, the introduction of the World Wide Web carried the promise of an open, limitless and objective means of disseminating and seeking knowledge across the globe. The idea of someone’s world view being influenced by the newspaper they read or TV channel they watched seemed to have been relegated to a distant past. Over the past few years, however, the improvements of personalization have clouded the aspiration of making the Internet a window on the world, and gradually turned it into a series of individualized mirrors, reflecting one’s interest as identified by automated pattern recognition.
Participants include: Sarah Abu Abdallah (Providence), Sophia Al Maria (Doha), Abdullah Al-Mutairi (New York), Rachael Allen (London), Yollotl Alvarado (Mexico City), ARCA & Jesse Kanda (London), Darja Bajagić (New York), Alessandro Bava (London), James Bridle (London), Andrea Crespo (New York), Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos (Athens), Alex Dolan (New York), Valia Fetisov (Moscow), Louisa Gagliardi (Zurich), Deanna Havas (New York), Max Hawkins (nomadic), Bernhard Hegglin (Zurich), Ho Rui An (Singapore), Emmanuel Iduma (New York), Nicholas Korody (Los Angeles), Isabel Legate (New York) Luca Lum & Marcus Yee (Singapore), Nicholas Maurer (Sydney), Felix Melia (London), Mitchell Messina (Cape Town), Ryan Murphy (New York), Wyatt Niehaus (New York), Adriana Ramić (New York), Tabita Rezaire (Johannesburg), Bunny Rogers (Stockholm), Ben Rosenthal (Zurich), Bogosi Sekhukhuni (Johannesburg), Takeshi Shiomitsu (London), Crista Siglin & Isaac Wilder (Kansas City), Jasper Spicero (New York), Jesse Stecklow (Los Angeles), Hito Steyerl (Berlin), Elisabeth Sutherland (Accra), Philipp Timischl (Vienna), Alexander Jackson Wyatt (Sydney), Urban Zellweger (Zurich), Zou Zhao (New York), Bruno Zhu (Amsterdam)
Opening event
Saturday, October 31, 4:30–6:30pm
Introductions by 89plus co-curators, Simon Castets and Hans Ulrich Obrist, followed by performances from Rachael Allen, Deanna Havas, Ho Rui An and Zou Zhao.
About LUMA Foundation
The LUMA Foundation was established in 2004 in Switzerland to support the activities of independent artists and pioneers, as well as institutions working in the fields of art, photography, publishing, documentary and multimedia. The foundation produces and commissions challenging artistic projects combing a particular interest in environmental issues, human rights, education and culture in the broadest sense.
The foundation’s headquarters and exhibition spaces in Zurich are part of the refurbished and expanded Löwenbräukunst art complex. LUMA Westbau opened in June 2013, presenting international projects, exhibitions and events commissioned and produced by the LUMA Foundation.
