Constant Dullaart displays a huge „Loudly Crying Face“ emoticon in the gallery space. According to Emojipedia, it is, as of March 2021, the most popular emoji on Twitter. It shows a (usually yellow) face with an open mouth wailing and streams of heavy tears flowing from closed eyes. It may convey inconsolable grief but also other intense feelings, such as uncontrollable laughter, pride or overwhelming joy. Constant Dullaart’s „Loudly Crying Face“ is a performative project which goes as follows: Once one of the installation views is posted on social media, the picture will usually receive comments in the comments section below. Only this time, it will be liked by hundreds of different Instagram accounts and will receive massive amounts of the same emoji in the comments section. This feedback will be documented in a screenshot which in turn will be re-inserted into the gallery space. Another installation view is posted on social media. The picture will again be liked by hundreds of different Instagram accounts and will receive massive amounts of the same emoji in the comments section. This feedback will be documented in a screenshot which in turn will be re-inserted into the gallery space. And on and on. The idea is that the work is moving in a constant feedback loop between the space of the gallery and social media. The ultimate accumulation of symbolic capital.

Aram Bartholl

Aram Bartholl’s digital show, entitled “walter_200 b3njamin's Nightmare!!!111“, consists of two different, seemingly simple elements: mirrors and boxes. The three mirrors display a collection of passwords, entitled „walter benjamin nightmare“, originating from the „Breech Collection #1-5“ consisting of sets of billions of email addresses and passwords freely downloadable from the dark web since 2019. Aram Bartholl searched the huge password collection for “walter”, “benjamin” and “nightmare”, and filtered out those that contained these terms. This is the first pun, as Walter Benjamin, author of the famous essay „The Work of Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction“ (1935), contrary to common belief, was less interested in the question of the aura (read: uniqueness or authenticity) than in the question of reproducibility. The mirrors usually reproduce a „uniqueness“ – here, however, the viewer is missing from the reflection. Passwords – in this case printed on the mirrors – are supposed to be unique in order to be safe; however, here, we see that they’re just the opposite. By carrying the name Benjamin within them, they invoke their inevitable, unavoidable (digital) nightmarish reproduction (a pun on the current NFT hype). In addition, Aram Bartholl will install a USB Deaddrop at the (real) gallery from which the list of “Walter Benjamin Nightmare” passwords can be freely downloaded.