Title: Possibilities for Critical Spectacle: AES+F's Video Installations
Abstract: At the 2010 Biennale of Sydney, The Beauty of Distance, where video was a prominent medium, one video work proved significantly more popular than others. Russian group AES+F's panoramic installation The Feast of Trimalchio (2009), which comprised tens of thousands of animated digital stills, ran for more than thirty minutes, but maintained the undivided attention of the notoriously fickle contemporary-art audience. Indeed, the audience's embrace of the work became integral to the rhetoric around the Biennale's record attendance numbers. In considering the popularity of The Feast of Trimalchio, certain questions arise. Was it 'entertaining' in a manner few contemporary artworks either are or aspire to be? What are the particular qualities that make it entertaining? And, if rapport with the audience is established in mass-media-like terms, does this preclude a relationship with the viewer associated more with that of 'autonomous art'?
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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