M HKA gaat digitaal

Met M HKA Ensembles zetten we onze eerste échte stappen in het digitale landschap. Ons doel is met behulp van nieuwe media de kunstwerken nog beter te kaderen dan we tot nu toe hebben kunnen doen.

We geven momenteel prioriteit aan smartphones en tablets, m.a.w. de in-museum-ervaring. Maar we zijn evenzeer hard aan het werk aan een veelzijdige desktop-versie. Tot het zover is vind je hier deze tussenversie.

M HKA goes digital

Embracing the possibilities of new media, M HKA is making a particular effort to share its knowledge and give art the framework it deserves.

We are currently focusing on the experience in the museum with this application for smartphones and tablets. In the future this will also lead to a versatile desktop version, which is now still in its construction phase.

Self-Portrait (Kissing with Scopolamine), 1994

Photography, variable.

©image: M HKA

Collection: Bruikleen M HKA van Stichting Beeldende Kunst Middelburg/De Vleeshal (Inv. no. VH0282).

Self Portrait has as its subtitle Kissing with Scopolamine. It is one work from a series of three that the artist describes as ‘portraits with truth drugs’. The other two pieces have the subtitles Kissing with Sodium Pentothal and Kissing with Amobarbital. The series of slides documents three performances given successively at the Lisson Gallery in London, in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and in the artist’s own bedroom. In the performances, Gordon kisses three different persons on the lips, each time with another ‘truth drug’ on his own lips. The slide projections slow the images in negative. The description ‘truth drugs’ is an ironic commentary by the artist. The three medicines – scopolamine, sodium pentothal and amobarbital – are respectively an agent against nausea, a tranquilizer and a somnambulant. At one time or another they were said to encourage telling the truth, and made use of by various secret services. It seems, though, that these are fables, encouraged by films like True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The use of these so-called truth drugs in these portraits says nothing about the real relationship between the two persons kissing. In one of his interviews, Gordon says about the kiss: “A relationship that even never gets off the ground, just one kiss, can still have more impact than a relationship with someone you’ve been living together with for years.” Despite the x-ray-like close-ups and the use of ‘truth drugs’, the viewer ultimately remains in limbo regarding the true situation of the kissing pair. With this series Gordon offers a commentary on voyeurism in our society, the urge to want to see what you usually don’t get to see. Reality soaps like The Delivery are seen by him as examples of this urge. In this work we get to see everything, but in fact we are not any closer to ‘the truth’.

Add to your list

Artist

> Douglas Gordon.

Exhibitions & Ensembles

> Exhibition: The collection XXXIII – The Collection as a Character. M HKA, Antwerpen, 07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.

> Exhibition: Urgent Conversations Athens - Antwerp. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST), Athens, 31 October 2016 - 05 February 2017.

> Exhibition: Visite Herentals - Reflections 2. Kasteel Le Paige, Herentals, 04 March 2017 - 26 March 2017.

> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Geel – Middle Gate II – The Story of Dymphna. Stad Geel, Geel, 15 September 2018 - 04 November 2018.

> Exhibition: EXTRA MUROS: Despuès del arte / After Art. Centro de Arte Contemporaneo Wifredo Lam, La Habana, 02 October 2009 - 15 November 2009.

> Ensemble: SBKM - Stichting Beeldende Kunst Middelburg.

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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.

> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.

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> Ensemble: The Unstable Self.

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> Ensemble: Screens.

> Ensemble: WAANZIN | MADNESS.

> Ensemble: Middle Gate.