I´m not here to make friends
Duo-Show: Nicolás Astorga & Christian Kölbl
– In order to become a great artist you have to be a bad person.
The premise of the exhibition is the goal of success in artistic career, and therefore the birth of a villain. Under this presumption the villain does not have to crash the table anymore. The neo villain sneaks around the old type of villain performance. Hiding in relationships and things, he sets up a system called a democratic „HATE with LOVE“ – machine. The real or old villain is only needed for not standing in the spot – not on the main stage but cruising through the backstage.
On the one hand art can be understood as an open democratic space for critical thought, but on the other, it can be perceived as a heavy capitalistic aspirational environment that allows the more privileged ones to flaunt their wealth. Artists are obligated to push their careers at any costs, taking decisions and following unscrupulous paths and choosing individualism as the bridge to get to their success: „narcissists willing to cash in their dignity for a shortcut to fame and notoriety“(*).
„A protagonist and his story can only be as intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism make them. We need our villains to be smart, we need them to be formidable, (…) we need them to have a defensible position.“(*) The old villain was introduced as a negative condition for seeking good. Considering these dialectics make one realize that it does not mean to take decisions and follow paths that are not the most ethical ones to push one’s career.
Photos by Regina Kelaita
