The 5th Floor of the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, in collaboration with Palazzo Grassi, the artist Kenneth Goldsmith and the duo of curators Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, hosts two digital episodes deriving of Hillary, The Hillary Clinton Emails an exhibition held in Venice in 2019.
What makes the exhibition extraordinary is first of all the subject, Hillary Clinton’s emails are printed and exhibited as a contemporary epic monument or poem. A much debated collective poem, and very little read, that from the private account of the former secretary of state became public online through the intervention of the U.S. Department of State first, then Wikileaks—which made it searchable—until it became physically habitable within the work of Goldsmith.
From Ubu to Venice to Screens up to Your Eyes merges a series of clips
from Instagram which documented the screening programme of Goldsmith’s
Hillary. The Hillary Clinton Emails at Cinema Teatro Italia
. More than 35 hours of audiovisual materials are condensed in an 8-minute video. The biographies of the artists whose works were included in the programme slowly flow on the moving images.
All the information runs fast, originating one single fragmented timeline which emphasizes the promotional nature of each message. The end credits of which the entire video is made become an audiovisual poem but also some useful tips for the quarantine.
With, in order of appearance:
Sophia Al-Maria, Leah Singer, Stan VanDerBeek, Peggy Ahwesh, Alex Da Corte, Jennifer West, Johanna Bruckner, Cheryl Donegan, People Like Us, Lev Manovic, Alix Pearlstein, Shadi Habib Allah, Jordan Wolfson, Bek Hyunjin, Christine Rebet, Sabrina Röthlisberger, Sarah Sackner.