intro
Is inauthenticity authenticity in disguise? Is inauthenticity a wish to forget oneself? When time becomes inauthentic?
Let me be a little more inauthentic. Is inauthenticity a teaser? Does inauthenticity never ask for permission? Inauthenticity is also a fan’s affair.
How many facets does the inauthentic have? Is there a dark inauthenticity? Is there an inauthentic darkness?
Is the inauthentic a surface or a deep structure? Why inauthenticity matters?
Are we inauthentic for each other? What happens when one’s mind drifts from the authentic to the inauthentic? Is there beauty in it?
Is inauthenticity the fabulous result of techniques? Is inauthentic another word for puzzle, translation, intent, alteration, modification, or memoir?
Now is the time to try something inauthentic, to pretend to be inauthentic, to understand the inauthentic and even play with it.
The theme of Sofía Bertomeu Hojberg’s sound art piece is illustrated in Heidegger’s “Being and Time”, a treatment of “authenticity ” (1927). “Heidegger’s view seemed to be that the majority of human beings lead an existence that is inauthentic. Rather than facing up to their own finitude—represented above all by the inevitability of death —they seek distraction and escape in inauthentic modalities such as curiosity, ambiguity and idle talk.”
“Instead of using a time lapse technique to show a sped up but naturalistic progression of day turning into night,” Jack Williams uses in his video of Tokyo’s skyline, “the sound of a light switch for each cut between day and night to highlight the mechanical and inauthentic process of video editing.”
Tomo Stanič says about his photo-collage: “The culture of images has overflown not only the market and the advertising industry, but also often represents a quicker and more flexible way of providing information and means of communication, (compared to the written word). Contemporary images are, in fact, visual insignificances, simulacra (J. Baudrillard), assemblages, poor images (H. Steyerl), they may even be undefined and unrecognizable; in the last instance, it is not so important what they are – false or true, public or intimate, professional or lay, composite (assembled) or simple – as where and in what way they appear.”
Many thanks to Zoe Anastassiou & Mark Blickley, Tessa Berring & Kathrine Sowerby, Sofía Bertomeu Hojberg, Chris Caines, Sean Cearley, Dimitris Foutris, Antonis Katsouris, Evangelos Kyriakos, Tiana Lavrova, John Morgan, Iordanis Papadopoulos, Tomo Stanič, Harun Tole, Chen Wang, and Jack Williams for their brilliant sound, concrete, video, visual and poetic works.
Dimitra Ioannou
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