2012/09/28
Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Toril Johannessen, Cameron MacLeod and Magnhild Øen Nordahl at blank projects, Cape Town

Pedro Gómez-Egaña, The Tristan Chord, 2008–2012. Courtesy of the artist
OCA ANNOUNCES
the participation of Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Toril Johannessen, Cameron MacLeod and Magnhild Øen Nordahl in ‘Machine Worries, Machine Hearts’ at blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
Curator: Anthea Buys
Exhibition Dates: 5–27 October 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday 4 October, 18:00
According to curator Anthea Buys, ‘Machine Worries, Machine Hearts’ is a group exhibition ‘about the possibilities of human-machine empathy’ inspired by an ancient Chinese story by the philosopher Zhuangzi. In the fourth century B.C.E. he wrote a fable of a traveling scholar who encountered a farmer struggling to retrieve water from a well to irrigate his crops. The farmer didn’t want the help of machines, because he was afraid that they might corrupt some ‘essentially human quality’ within him. Buys states that 'this anxiety, and the territory of human-machine relations more broadly, is well-explored in science fiction and cybernetics. However, in this exhibition, we take the phrases "machine worries" and "machine hearts" at face value and imagine them as real emotional states or ways of feeling. What are “machine worries”, or what might it be like for a machine to “worry”? Can we imagine our way into the “hearts” of machines?’
For press inquiries and more information on this announcement, please contact Anthea Buys.
About the artists
Pedro Gómez-Egaña (b.1976 in Colombia, lives and works in
Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark) is trained as a composer and
visual artist at Goldsmiths College, London, UK and the Bergen
National Academy of Arts, Norway. His work with sculpture, video
and audio has been presented in national and international venues
such as Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen;
L’appartement 22, Rabat, Morocco; Institute of Contemporary Art,
London, UK; CCMoca, Buenos Aires, Brazil and Kunstraum Kreuzberg,
Berlin, Germany. Gómez-Egaña has developed a variety of
research projects at different institutions and with partners such
as the British Council, Goldsmiths College, Kunstnernes Hus, The
Laban Centre, Bergen National Academy of Arts, and Universidad
Nacional de Colombia.
Toril Johannessen (b.1978 in Harstad, Norway, lives and
works in Bergen) holds a BA and MA from the Bergen National Academy
of Arts and was trained from the Mountain School of Arts, Los
Angeles, CA, USA. She was one of the participating artists in
dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012). Her work has been presented
at Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; SMART Project Space,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Bergen Art Museum, Bergen; CSA Space in
Vancouver, Canada and INCA, Detroit, MI, USA.
Cameron MacLeod (b.1975 in Halifax, Canada, lives and
works in Bergen) graduated from the Konstfack University of Art,
Craft and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. He is a founding member of
the artist collective and gallery Platform in Stockholm and he has
been exhibiting his work in VIAFARINI, Milano, Italy; Shoshana
Wayne Gallery, Santa Monica, CA and at Det Åpne Teater, Oslo,
Norway.
Magnhild Øen Nordahl (b.1985 in Ulsteinvik, Norway, lives
and works in Stockholm) is enrolled in the Masters programme at the
Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Recent exhibitions
include ‘Spatial Dispacements: The Space in Between’, Tin Sheds
Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2012); ‘The Armory Show Annex’, ACE
Hotel, New York, NY, USA (2012) and 'White painted bricks', Die
Fabrik, Burgdorf, Switzerland. She held a solo exhibition titled
‘Statics’, at NO.5, Bergen Kunsthall in 2011.
OCA Support
Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Toril Johannessen, Cameron
MacLeod and Magnhild Øen Nordahl's participation in ‘Machine
Worries, Machine Hearts’ at blank projects is supported by OCA's
International Support Programme.