MARKUS HUEMER
If You Can Inhale, You´ve Already Done Something Right
04.12.2019 – 31.01.2020
On Wednesday, December 4th 2019, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center presents If You Can Inhale, You´ve Already Done Something Right, the first solo show of Austrian artist Markus Huemer in Greece, curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis.
The show will run until January 31st 2020.
“You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative”
― William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
Cocaine Laced Digital Candy
Markus Huemer is a typical artist for our complex and convoluted times: he copiously tries to craft new aesthetics and narratives to grasp the dominant techno-cultural forces shaping our world today.
His first solo exhibition in Greece is a collection of narratives about the systemic crises of the 21st Century. His technique is basic and effective: like a microorganism capable of thriving in extreme conditions is considered hostile to most life forms, he allows us to think about the tendency towards extremes that increasingly characterizes both contemporary culture and our material reality.
His images are unconventional with somewhat forced critical analysis (Transparent Text Editor in Hidden Growth, Striped Copycat) and artistic research which reflect on strange (Wonderful Example of Macro Virus “Relax”) and most of the times hostile titles (Dangerous Boot Sector Virus “AntiEXE”): a tendency which increasingly characterizes contemporary culture. And digital schizophrenia, perhaps…
As our world experiences mounting ideological extremism and polarization, a sense of existential dread permeates all facets of contemporary culture. At times like these, Markus Huemer decided to embody the very definition of viral adaptation and resilience.
What can we learn from those who exist at the margins and beyond? What new modes of (co)existence can we derive from the concept of If You Can Inhale, You´ve Already Done Something Right?
Especially in Greece we are first-hand witnesses of the political and economic convulsions that have de-stabilized societies all over the world since the 2008 financial crisis. Markus Huemer’s paintings probe the darkest corners of the networks, systems and services that mediate our existence.
They are emotionless explorations of the potentialities and pitfalls of designing images. An A.I. future resting in the hands of global corporations? A thoughtful warning?
“The junk merchant doesn’t sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client.”
― William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
Dimitrios Antonitsis
November 2019