“Deeply invested in how the impact of technology looks and feels, Metahaven’s work […] invites us into the very personal depths of our changing world, minds, and bodies — knowledgably playing with the many textures and faces of power. Visualizing the digital protocol of these power structures is the main focus of Metahaven’s practice, with the inhabitant as its vantage point. While researchers debate how social media platforms may shorten the attention span of teenagers growing up today, Metahaven’s work pervasively engulfs us with our own intimate shrinkage of life down to a grid, our subtle impatience with the slow and unfiltered tapestry of the offline world.” The words of Bart van der Heide, Chief Curator at Stedelijk Museum, can perfectly usher in “Metahaven: Earth”, the first large-scale museum survey of Metahaven, bringing together the Dutch collective’s new moving image work with its renowned practice, ranging across visual art, design, and film.
“Earth”. Metahaven at Stedelijk Museum
An exhibition in Amsterdam retraces the research of Dutch collective Metahaven and premieres the exploration of a New Silk Road in the film installation “Eurasia”.
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- Giovanni Comoglio
- 31 October 2018
- Amsterdam
Metahaven, HOME, music video for Holly Herndon, still, 2014. Courtesy 4AD/RVNG Intl.
Metahaven, Captives of the Cloud: Scanlation, 2013. Courtesy Metahaven.
Metahaven, Hometown, still, 2018. Courtesy Metahaven.
Metahaven, Information Skies, still, 2016. Courtesy Metahaven.
Metahaven, The Sprawl (Propaganda about Propaganda), still, 2015. Courtesy Metahaven.
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), still, 2018. Courtesy Metahaven.
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018. Pages from Metahaven, Karen Archey (eds.) “PSYOP: An Anthology” © 2018 Metahaven; the authors; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Koenig Books, London. Courtesy Metahaven and Stedelijk Musem Amsterdam
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018. Pages from Metahaven, Karen Archey (eds.) “PSYOP: An Anthology” © 2018 Metahaven; the authors; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Koenig Books, London. Courtesy Metahaven and Stedelijk Musem Amsterdam
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018. Pages from Metahaven, Karen Archey (eds.) “PSYOP: An Anthology” © 2018 Metahaven; the authors; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Koenig Books, London. Courtesy Metahaven and Stedelijk Musem Amsterdam
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018. Pages from Metahaven, Karen Archey (eds.) “PSYOP: An Anthology” © 2018 Metahaven; the authors; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Koenig Books, London. Courtesy Metahaven and Stedelijk Musem Amsterdam
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018. Pages from Metahaven, Karen Archey (eds.) “PSYOP: An Anthology” © 2018 Metahaven; the authors; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Koenig Books, London. Courtesy Metahaven and Stedelijk Musem Amsterdam
Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018. Pages from Metahaven, Karen Archey (eds.) “PSYOP: An Anthology” © 2018 Metahaven; the authors; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Koenig Books, London. Courtesy Metahaven and Stedelijk Musem Amsterdam
The only portrait of Metahaven, according to press services.
The exhibition unfolds in four galleries at the Stedelijk dedicated to the sheer, immersive video installations that Metahaven has been creating since 2015. A fifth gallery centers around Metahaven’s music videos, textile and print works. Still, the key feature of “Metahaven: Earth” is the premiere of Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), a film installation jointly commissioned by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (ICA), which will be simultaneously shown at both locations.
Shot in the Ural Mountains and Macedonia, Eurasia combines animation and documentary analysis with aspects of science fiction, poetry, and folk tale. As told by the curatorial team, “Eurasia begins where its predecessor, Metahaven’s 2015 film The Sprawl (Propaganda About Propaganda), left off, and finds itself along the New Silk Road which links the technological infrastructures of Asia and Europe. Traversing through abstract plains and ecological disaster zones, the film focuses on historical time running at different, incompatible rates, across vast territories that are collapsed into singular media spaces.” The exhibition system is completed by PSYOP: An Anthology, a monographic print publication designed by Metahaven in the form of a large zine and collaboratively edited by exhibition curator Karen Archey in conversations with leading voices in diverse fields such as music, poetry, art, film, and fashion.
- Metahaven: Earth
- Karen Archey
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
- Museumplein 10 1071 DJ Amsterdam
- until February 24, 2019
- Metahaven: VERSION HISTORY, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London until January 13, 2019)
- Metahaven and Karen Archey (eds.), “PSYOP: An Anthology”, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2018