Boris Groys: Thinking in Loop

In recent times video, instead of text, has become the leading vehicle for transmitting information of any kind. Not accidentally the contemporary radical religious movements use video rather than text to present their programs and ideas. The videos that are shown on CNN and other comparable channels are the main source of political information for the greater audiences. MTV videos are central for the development of contemporary pop culture. And YouTube made video the chosen medium for anyone to communicate ideas or images to the whole world.

Combining theoretical texts and film footage, the videos in this exhibition are made not with a goal to transmit knowledge, to comment on the news, to spread religious and ideological propaganda, or to be used in the framework of education. The topic of these videos is, actually, video as a medium: the use of the image in the video, the analogy between video and essay, the difference between private and public use of the video, the video running in loop as modern form of ritual. The film footage is not used here as a mere illustration to make the text more comprehensible, or to make certain theoretical positions more evident. Rather, the exhibited videos thematize a gap between what we hear and what we see, and reflect on the relationship between image and word in our media driven world.

The Immortal Bodies, 28:40 The Religion as Medium, 24:10 Iconoclastic Delights, 19:45

Talk by Boris Groys: Friday, Feb. 29, 7pm, Tribeca Grand Hotel Screening Rm.

Boris Groys
Thinking in Loop: Three Videos on Iconoclasm, Ritual & Immortality