ST.GALLEN.- What is art’s place in this world? What do we expect from it and how do we consume it? These questions are at the centre of the exhibition «ALL I EAT IN A DAY», curated by Giovanni Carmine and artist Cory Arcangel. The group show features works by Gabriele Garavaglia (*1981 in Vercelli/ IT), Barbara Kruger (*1945 in Newark, New Jersey/USA), Jayson Musson (*1977 in Bronx, New York/USA) or Emily Sundblad (*1977 in Dalsjöfors/SWE).
Consumer culture, entertainment, and the tourism industry increasingly infiltrate the field of art: fashion brands drop artist collaborations, luxury products claim to have artwork status, and immersive lightshows blend classical art history with spectacular marketing.
Influencers populate the social media feeds of established art institutions, while museum goers are on the hunt for an instagrammable experience. As a result, to remain connected via live streaming and viral trends, institutions are obliged to constantly grow their media habits.
How does this impact the definition of art, artworks, and artists? Which media formats and exhibition strategies are most appropriate? And where is the line between art and its commodification? Giovanni Carmine, Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, and Cory Arcangel, who has been exploring internet phenomena and pop culture since the 2000s, have been discussing these questions since the beginning of their nearly twenty-year friendship. Numerous conversations have now culminated in a jointly curated group exhibition. Its title, «ALL I EAT IN A DAY», refers to the trend of posting videos about one's daily (food) consumption on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok (the hashtag #wieiad – What I eat in a day – has over 528.9K entries on TikTok).
The show features works which play with mediums that are on the cusp of being regarded as serious for the field of contemporary art: Cory Arcangel, who launched his artistic career with a then suspect form – net art – will occupy the Kunst Halle with an oversized video installation that parodies the commercial art mediation format of immersive exhibitions. Emily Sundblad connects us via streaming to a work of art in a collection depot, using technology to give us access to a non-public institutional context and its hidden treasures. Jayson Musson, accompanied by a puppet, narrates his very own version of art history. Laurel Schwulst teleports us into an airplane seat with a homemade HTML site mimicking an airplane media network, while Sanko GameCorp © re-animates long forgotten intellectual property in the age of crypto and plushies.
The patron saint of the exhibition is Carlo Acutis, the 'internet saint' proclaimed by the Catholic Church. This young man, who died at the age of 15, programmed websites about Eucharistic miracles in the early 2000s and is set to be canonized in 2024. He represents the millennia-old institution's attempt to keep pace with digital cultural practices and evolving media landscapes.
This is how, along with other contributors and artifacts, «ALL I EAT IN A DAY» invites us to critically, yet playfully, question media and consumer habits.
