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Yours, KOW

Anna Ehrenstein + Léon Kruijswijk in conversation

, Anna Ehrenstein

Opening  ›  May 16, 7:00 PM

May 16, 2024

On the Occasion of the release of the new video art edition n° 26: Anna Ehrenstein – Real Thomas Metzinger, an artist talk between Anna Ehrenstein and Léon Kruijswijk (curator– KW Institute for Contemporary Art) will take place at KOW on Thursday, May 16 at 7pm. The talk will be followed by a few drinks

The “Real Thomas Metzinger” takes the nose-job as an occasion to (re)consider and diagram the self, the face and authenticity in the age of cosmetic surgery, consumer AI and networked culture. Ehrenstein grapples with the notions of identity and authenticity and troubles the idea of a “true self” that ultimately serves to police her body after the cosmetic procedure.

The artist’s decision to undergo a nose job serves as a catalyst for probing societal attitudes toward authenticity and self-expression. While neuroscience has not yet reached a consensus on what the self or consciousness is or whether it even exists, reactions to Ehrenstein’s surgical alteration revealed a societal insistence on a fixed notion of the authentic self. Meanwhile, neuroscientists such as Thomas Metzinger posit that the self is entirely a constructed entity, a hallucination of the mind rather than an inherent truth. The “brute fact” is that behind every face, rather than a transcendent self, “there is nothing but material substance.”

Around the same time, the proliferation of deepfake technologies, transitioning from hi-tech to consumer-level, further complicates the relationship between facial appearance and personal identity. Applications such as Mug Life enabled consumers to let other people’s faces say what they wanted them to—Oprah Winfrey and Elvis Presley end up as little more than lo-fi digital mouthpieces in the artist’s process.

On screen, Ehrenstein performs a series of tasks and exercises that, according to various online guides, are supposed to reconcile her surgically altered face with a truer self. Collaged with the aforementioned deep fake-generated footage overlaid with quotes from Metzinger’s “The Ego Tunnel”, the artist decenters the authenticity of the self in favor of a more malleable, unfixed, glitchy version.

Ehrenstein extrapolates these coinciding moments spanning the personal, the societal, the technological, to question whether an unalterable self exists in the first place, reconsidering identity, and reality in an age where physical appearance can be surgically and digitally manipulated, and perceptions of selfhood are constantly mediated by technological advancements.

Felix Ansmann

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Current

Upcoming

2024

Social Geometry and its Cracks, Relations, Discontents

, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Ariana Dongus, Jan Distelmeyer, Alexander Repp, Zsolt Sőrés and Anne Clark
Jun 27, 2024

Anna Ehrenstein + Léon Kruijswijk in conversation

, Anna Ehrenstein
May 16, 2024

2023

CANDICE BREITZ + COCO FUSCO IN CONVERSATION

, Candice Breitz, Coco Fusco
Dec 6, 2023

Wolfen–Book release

Book release and artist talk with Regina Bittner, Kathleen Rahn and Tobias Zielony
Mar 4, 2023

Kann man politische Kunst besitzen?

Wolfgang Ullrich im Gespräch mit Mario von Kelterborn
Feb 15, 2023

2022

Proof of the Unthinkable

Diskussion mit Bea Streicher (Amnesty) und Mouctar Bah (Initiative in Gedenken an Oury Jalloh e.V.)
Nov 5, 2022

Proof of the Unthinkable

Screening und Diskussion mit Mario Pfeifer, der Initiative in Gedenken an Oury Jalloh und Iain Peck
Oct 29, 2022

The Fall

Book release, reading and coversation with the authors, Tobias Zielony and Sascha Ehlert (Das Wetter)
Oct 7, 2022

Neoism Performance

Istvan Kantor
Jul 15, 2022

Balot NFT presentation at KOW booth Art Basel

, CATPC
Jun 16, 2022

Albanian Conference Performance

, Anna Ehrenstein
May 13, 2022

2021

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE

, Mario Pfeifer
Nov 3, 2021

2019

KOW ISSUE 20: The Great Nowitzki

, Tobias Zielony, Thomas Pletzinger
Sep 19, 2019

KOW ISSUE 19: Eastern Girls and Western Boys


Mar 30, 2019

2017

KOW ISSUE 18: How to see documenta 14


Aug 22, 2017

2016

KOW ISSUE 17: Brauchen wir einen Solidarischen Populismus?

Candice Breitz, Mischa Gabowitsch, Alexander Koch, Maximilian Popp
Oct 4, 2016

KOW ISSUE 16: Kunst im Auftrag der Bevölkerung. L'émergence d'un art de la démocratie

François Hers, Alexander Koch
Jul 5, 2016

KOW ISSUE 15: Art and Economic Inequality

Renzo Martens, Kolja Reichert, Alexander Koch
Jun 7, 2016

2015

KOW ISSUE 14: The Dialogique City

Christian von Borries, Arno Brandlhuber, Thomas Mayfried, Christian Posthofen und Thomas Weski
Dec 10, 2015

KOW ISSUE 13: Russia, the Zombie State of the Art, and Collective Despair and Utopia

, Chto Delat
Apr 9, 2015

KOW ISSUE 12: Screening & Lecture by Barbara Hammer

, Estate of Barbara Hammer
Feb 7, 2015

SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL AT KOW

, Chto Delat, Alice Creischer, Eugenio Dittborn, Heinrich Dunst, Estate of Barbara Hammer, Renzo Martens, Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger, Mario Pfeifer, Michael E. Smith, Franz Erhard Walther, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Tobias Zielony, Barbecue, music, and a screening of 22 videos by 15 artists
Jun 28, 2015

ONE YEAR OF FILMMAKERS

KOW's program 2015: Exhibitions, Talks, Events
Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2015

2014

KOW ISSUE 11: Heinrich Dunst

, Heinrich Dunst, Performance and conversation with Heinrich Dunst
Oct 30, 2014

2012

KOW ISSUE 10: Berliner Archipele 2012

Arno Brandlhuber in conversation
Sep 15, 2012

KOW ISSUE 9: Creischer vs. Brandlhuber

Alice Creischer, Arno Brandlhuber
Jun 26, 2012

3 YEARS KOW

KOW's Third Anniversary Party
Sep 7 – Sep 8, 2012

OPEN SOURCE CULTURE IN POST-CONFLICT DEVELOPMENT

South Sudan and Open Source Culture: Opening discussion of the international conference and workshop #OSJUBA
Jun 21, 2012

MANITOBA BOOK RELEASE

, Tobias Zielony, In collaboration with SPECTOR BOOKS Leipzig and MOTTO DISTRIBUTION Berlin with Andrea Hiott, Astrid Mania and Tobias Zielony
Apr 24, 2012

AUGUSTIN TEBOUL, FASHION WEEK 2012

Fashion Show
Jan 18, 2012

2011

KOW ISSUE 8: GENERAL STRIKE

Lee Lozano, Charlotte Posenenske, Cady Noland, et al. Publication by Alexander Koch
Apr 30, 2011

LESUNG AUS DEN BERLINER WAHLKAMPFPROGRAMMEN

Lecture Performance arranged by Arno Brandlhuber in the context of RGB 165/96/36 CMYK 14/40/80/20
Sep 11, 2011

SANTIAGO SIERRA: DESTROYED WORD

Destruction of the Berlin T
May 1, 2011

POLARKREIS

Biannual salon of POLAR, Zeitschrift für Politik, Kultur, Alltag
Jan 1, 2011

2010

KOW ISSUE 7: Duty and Defeat

, Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger
May 5 – May 9, 2010

OPEN EYE AWARD 2010

Galaveranstaltung anlässlich der Verleihung des OPEN EYE AWARD durch MICT
Dec 9, 2010

Sudan Votes Music Hopes

Release Party with MICT (Media in Cooperation and Transition) and live concert by Sudanese singer Alsarah
Apr 8, 2010

2009

KOW ISSUE 6: Relational Authorship, or: What is „Independent Publishing“?

Olaf Nicolai (artist, Berlin) and Jan Wenzel (Spector Books, Leipzig) in conversation
Dec 11, 2009

SUDAN VOTES - MEDIA AS A MEDIATOR?

Panel discussion by MICT
Oct 26, 2009

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