exhibition | vienna, at

You have to play to fully experience the exhibition!
Screen Talk, Cheat Island, Console of Quiz, Press Key Port, Hand of Vengeance, Tax Haven Roulette, and Souvenir Shop: these are the various stations of Pandemic Pandemonium. In fact, the whole exhibition is a kind of walk-on game board: the visitors move from zone to zone, gathering information and clues for the quiz questions and small challenges to be solved at the “gaming machines” where they can try their luck and—with a little dexterity and steady nerves—even win genuine works of art. No need to be scared! The game is humorous and parodic, with the answers hidden in the sixteen episodes of the video installation Screen Talk, and paying a visit to Cheat Island could be prove helpful, too, though those who do might find themselves in an ethical dilemma afterwards.

For visitors who are more interested in crypto art, the exhibition offers them an opportunity to colorize the digital template Hand of Vengeance to their liking. They can then buy the picture in the form of an NFT (non-fungible token) and stash it in their personal crypto wallets.

The exhibition is an immersive installation comprising videos, sculptures, animated objects, interactive elements, home-built gaming consoles, and works of digital art. A characteristic feature of Beloufa’s shows is that they mix existing and new works, recombining diverse elements in a scenario that is designed to be confusing rather than conveying an unequivocal message. His work alludes to tendencies in society and politics, to social inequality, venture capitalism, and the crypto economy, to an internet dominated by algorithms and concentrations of power in the physical and virtual worlds. At the same time, the exhibition toys with the utopian and visionary ideals behind Web3—the self-empowering vision of an internet without power centers and the possibilities it opens up for everyone.

Neïl Beloufa & EBB
Pandemic Pandemonium
Secession, Wien, AT
29 June – 4 September 2022

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