Visibility is a trap
The aim of this project is to create a never-ending paradox. The statements on the posters stand in direct opposition to the video displayed alongside them. Pro- and anti-capitalist statements are blended together, addressing themes such as shaming, visibility on social networks, and censorship. The title of the project, “Visibility is a Trap,” is a quote from Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish. The project invites multiple interpretations and is intentionally open-ended.
Klára Kusá’s creative approach is based on the critique of artistic (hyper)production of artefacts as one of the main premises of the neoliberal, free market that are also implemented in the world of art. In her artistic practice, she therefore applies an experimental approach that relies on the tools and strategies of (post)conceptual art, in this project dealing with the concept of absurdity and the contradictions of social reality. We are fighting against capitalism, at the same time supporting and using that same system to express our views and opinions, which, if they become too dangerous, are censored. Escape is only an illusion; it is impossible without a complete break from such a comprehensive system that mercilessly grabs every segment of our lives.
Sara Mikelić
Site-specific installation: tape, pieces of destroyed posters, green screen, video projected
on green screen fabric on loop via projector.
Tyršovo nábrežie, T3 – Kultúrny prostriedok, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2022
Performance during the opening in Garaža Kamba
The performance during the opening of the exhibition, Visibility is a Trap in Zagreb, drew directly from Foucault’s idea that visibility is a form of control, a mechanism that both exposes and confines. The performance involved cutting the textiles that formed the installation at Garaa Kamba, tearing various posters, and climbing a tree on the site. I placed the torn pieces of the posters into the empty spaces in the trunk of the tree to emphasize the contradiction between the system and the anti-system. By disrupting the natural flow of the site, I sought to question how the imposition of visibility, whether through art or social structures, can both liberate and constrain, revealing the hidden tensions between power and resistance.
Site-specific installation, green screen, textile found on site,
video projected on green screen fabric on loop via projector.
Garaža Kamba, Zagreb, Croatia, 2024
Photography credit: Josip Bolonić