DED

Martine Syms

As part of HYBRID Biennale (October 12 - 27, 2024), PYLON is presenting unique contemporary video works by Martine Syms, Jacolby Satterwhite and Sondra Perry. As the first part of the physical screening series ERRATIC CURRENTS, PYLON will show 'DED' (2021) by Los Angeles based artist Martine Syms during the first festival weekend from October 10 - 12 at Kraftwerk Mitte in Dresden, Germany.

The focus of the satellite exhibitions under the title ERRATIC CURRENTS is the examination of the divergent tendencies that shape our current self-image as individuals and societies. The works presented invite visitors to immerse themselves in the fascinating but often contradictory realities created by the artists, in which human identities move between the poles of digitalization, virtualization and historical reminiscence.

The screening of the video work “DED” by Martine Syms kicks off the series from October 10-12. The work explores the role of media and pop culture in the construction and preservation of identity. Syms questions how performativity and self-presentation are shaped by digital platforms and at the same time critically reflected upon. With humor and irony, she shows how the perception of authenticity is manipulated by the media.

Martine Syms obtained an MFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (NY) (2017) and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (IL) (2007). Syms has earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humor and social commentary. Using a combination of video, installation and performance, often interwoven with explorations into technique and narrative, Syms examines representations of blackness and its relationship to vernacular, feminist thought, and radical traditions. Syms's research-based practice frequently references and incorporates theoretical models concerning performed or imposed identities, the power of the gesture, and embedded assumptions concerning gender and racial inequalities.

ERRATIC CURRENTS - Martine Syms

October 10 - 12

Kraftwerk Mitte 7

01067 Dresden

Open Thursday - Saturday | 16 - 19h

Ermöglicht durch WIR GESTALTEN DRESDEN

Das Projekt "Kreativ.Raum.Börse“ findet in Kooperation zwischen der Landeshauptstadt Dresden und WIR GESTALTEN DRESDEN statt und wird im Rahmen des Bundesprogramms Zukunftsfähige Innenstädte und Zentren des Bundesministeriums für Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Bauwesen gefördert.

www.wir-gestalten-dresden.de

The screening series is in cooperation with Hellerau - European Center for the Arts Dresden and is kindly supported by the city of Dresden - Landeshauptstadt Dresden - Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz and Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen. Gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen. Diese Maßnahme wird mitfinanziert durch Steuermittel auf der Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes.

DED (2021)

An avatar, created through a 3D scan of Syms, navigates a plain and vast virtual landscape, the perspective sometimes floating above, sometimes alongside, as she progresses through a perpetual cycle of death and resurrection. Her avatar's journey seems to reflect the spectacularly confusing or nonsensical experience of inhabiting a body during a time of violence and illness that has unceasingly threatened notions of stability and consequentiality, forcing ever-evolving tactics of survival. How can despair and suffering in their many forms—as encountered by an individual, a community, a world —be reconciled with the motions and routines of daily living, and with even, necessarily, finding humor and grace in this living? Set against a glow of light that transforms from dawn to dusk, and juxtaposed with a soundtrack of bright pop vocals, the artist’s voice intoning sincere, mantra-like phrases, Syms’s avatar rises and reconstitutes, unfailingly, each time.