IMPAKT EXHIBITION: TRUTH THAT LIES
Curated by Renata Šparada & Irena Borić,
9 February – 17 March 2019,
IMPAKT Center for Media Culture, Lange Nieuwstraat 4, Utrecht.
How we are being misinformed in the age of information.
Artists in the exhibition: Keren Cytter, Omer Fast, Harun Farocki, Sharon Hayes, Hrvoje Hiršl & Luis Rodil Fernández, Martine Neddam, Erica Scourti, Mladen Stilinović and The Yes Men
Social media sites and search engines are the key ingredients of the change from the manipulative form of propaganda of the past to the prevalence of the Post-truth paradigm of the present. How are words and ideas used to obscure and manipulate? The exhibition and panel discussion of Truth That Lies look at the different political and cultural strategies that have been used in our Post-truth reality and in our recent history.
Inspired by George Orwell’s prescient novel 1984, the events take the shape of the two agencies in The Ministry of Truth, the propaganda agency of 1984’s dystopian government: the Fiction and the Records Department. The Fiction Department is represented by Truth That Lies, an exhibition exploring a use of language through gesture, manipulation, hate speech, algorithm, propaganda, make-believe or tautology.
The Records Department is mirrored in a panel called War on Facts. This panel will be organized on 8 February, prior to the opening of the exhibition, and it will address misinformation, alternative facts, fake news and information manipulation.
In this way Truth That Lies uses Orwellian “doublespeak” (a language that obscures) as a metaphor for our times, where misinformation is everywhere and its spread is amplified through technology. The programme researches the development of Post-truth, how it was used in the past, how it affects personal identity, and what the future would look like if things proceed from here.
Artists in the exhibition: Keren Cytter, Omer Fast, Harun Farocki, Sharon Hayes, Hrvoje Hiršl & Luis Rodil Fernández, Martine Neddam, Erica Scourti, Mladen Stilinović and The Yes Men
What: exhibition curated by Renata Šparada and Irena Borić
When: 9 February – 17 March, Wed-Sun 12:00-17:00
Where: IMPAKT Center for Media Culture, Lange Nieuwstraat 4, Utrecht
I Hate Mouchette
Martine Neddam
The Netherlands, 1996 (2019)
Installation and website
For Martine Neddam the ultimate way of expression is by means of fictitious identities. She uses her online character Mouchette to expose the neuralgic and soft spots of contemporary society organised and expressed on the web. In the work I Hate Mouchette the identity of Mouchette is constructed from hate-filled insults. The work shows how the post-truth age requires us to take a good look at the ways in which fake content reshapes opinions and identities, occasionally with fatal consequences.
IMPAKT Exhibition: Truth That Lies: I hate Mouchette
