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In the Cosmos

Martine Syms: DED

until
In dem Filmstill von der Videoarbeit 'DED' von Martine Syms ist eine computergenerierte Szene zu sehen: Eine Person springt mit ausgebreiteten Armen in einem leeren Raum.
Martine Syms, DED, 2021

Through unflinching imagery, Martine Syms’s filmic work “DED” (2021) explores themes of pain, isolation, the fragility of humanity, as well as self-empowerment and the refusal to remain trapped in suffering. As the most recent addition to the Brandhorst Collection, “DED” is presented for the first time as part of the exhibition “Long Story Short” in the media room of Museum Brandhorst.

Info

Period

until

Location

Lower level

Curated by

Franziska Linhardt

The practice of Martine Syms is distinguished by its boundlessness: across moving image, photography, installation, performance, software, and publishing, she combines incisive social observations with a pronounced sense of humor. The Los Angeles–based artist examines representations of Blackness and its relationship to feminist thought, radical traditions, and concepts of self in a reality shaped by technology and digitality.

 

Syms’s filmic works frequently revolve around digital versions of herself. In “DED,” the artist appears as a digital avatar—based on a 3D scan of her own body—wandering through a vast virtual landscape in an endless loop between self-destruction, death, and rebirth. Her T-shirt bears the words “TO HELL WITH MY SUFFERING” in capital letters.

 

Through unflinching imagery and a haunting pop soundtrack, “DED” explores themes of pain, isolation, the fragility of humanity, and self-empowerment, touching on the refusal to remain trapped in suffering.

Martine Syms

Martine Syms is an artist who has earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humor, and social commentary. She has shown extensively including exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has also done commissioned work for brands such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Nike, and Celine, among others. She is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award, the Creative Capital Award, a United States Artists fellowship, the Tiffany Foundation award, the Future Fields Art Prize and is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow. Syms is the writer and director of “The African Desperate” (MUBI), which was the closing night film of New Directors/New Films 2022 and nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2023.

“My films are about the way routine experiences of spectacular and mundane violence create insanity and despair. Where humor kisses pain.”

Martine Syms

Ein dunkler Museumsraum zeigt eine große Videoprojektion mit dem Rücken einer Person in heller Kleidung, auf der der Text „TO HELL WITH MY SUFFERING“ steht. Davor sitzen und stehen zwei Personen auf runden blauen Sitzmöbeln.
Ein dunkler Museumsraum zeigt eine große Videoprojektion mit einer Person, die auf einer hellen Fläche geht und einen langen Schatten wirft. Davor stehen zwei runde blaue Sitzmöbel.
Ein dunkler Museumsraum zeigt eine große Videoprojektion mit einer Person, die auf einer weiten Fläche kniet. Davor sitzen zwei Personen auf runden blauen Sitzmöbeln.
In dem Filmstill von der Videoarbeit 'DED' von Martine Syms ist eine computergenerierte Szene zu sehen: Eine Hand hält ein Messer in Nahaufnahme vor einem neutral-abstrakten Hintergrund.
Martine Syms, DED, 2021

Related exhibition

Exhibition

Exhibition Long Story Short. An Art History from the Brandhorst Collection from the 1960s to the Present

until

Related artwork

In dem Filmstill von der Videoarbeit 'DED' von Martine Syms ist eine computergenerierte Szene zu sehen: Eine Person springt mit ausgebreiteten Armen in einem leeren Raum.
Martine Syms DED, 2021