Mungo Thomson

This is Presence

September 23, 2016 - February 5, 2017 

Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, USA

www.ballroommarfa.org

Mungo Thomson, June 14, 2004 (Ronald Reagan 1911-2004), 2012, enamel on low-iron mirror with poplar and anodized aluminium, 188 x 142 cm / 74 x 55 7/8 in.

Ballroom Marfa is pleased to announce This is Presence, on view in Marfa, Texas from September 23, 2016 – February 5, 2017. This exhibition features newly-commissioned work from artist collective the Institute for New Feeling (IfNf), including the video nominated by Ballroom Marfa for the 2016 season of Artists’ Film International (AFI). AFI is an international collaboration organized by Whitechapel Gallery, London, that showcases emerging artists working in video and animation. The IfNf project will be complemented by two micro-exhibitions hosted by Arturo Bandini in Ballroom’s courtyard. These distinct projects will both respond to the theme of AFI 2016: technology.

Founded by Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt, and Nina Sarnelle, IfNf describes their collaboration as “a research clinic committed to the development of new ways of feeling, and ways of feeling new.” Their multidisciplinary works and installations borrow from the language of corporate branding, new age healing and traditional medicine, injecting the mystical and uncanny into commercial interfaces.

The first of IfNf’s two commissions is the eponymous 17-minute video, This is Presence (2016). The video replicates the endless linking actions of web users as they search for answers on the Internet. The artists’ marshal search engine logic as a sort of modern oracle system while simulating the marketing mechanisms that optimize online presence. As part of the AFI program, This is Presence will receive international attention as it is screened at the 14 other participating institutions. Ballroom will, in turn, screen short videos from artists selected by these institutions on-site during the run of the exhibition in Marfa. 

In the Ballroom Marfa courtyard, Arturo Bandini hosts two shows-within-the-show, Sim City and Grey Goo Gardens, over the run of AFI 2016. These micro-exhibitions will include work from sixteen artists, who will play with and off of the exhibition’s technological themes. Sim City (September 23 – December 4, 2016) features Edgar Bryan, Jason Roberts Dobrin, Michael Dopp, Liz Glynn, Kate Hall, Julian Hoeber, Nevine Mahmoud, and Mungo ThomsonGrey Goo Gardens (December 9, 2016 – February 5, 2017) presents Ed Fornieles, Sonja Gerdes, Joel Holmberg, Dwyer Kilcollin, Chanel Von Habsburg-Lothringen, Anna Mayer, Thomas Mcdonell, and Isaac Resnikoff.