“Late Capitalism is treating the future as a piece of real estate for sale”
Agnieszka Kurant’s work explores the complexities of late digital capitalism, where society has become a factory for data production and exploitation. A key term for Kurant is collective intelligence, which highlights how various elements, including molecules, animals, and humans, can interact to shape the world. Thus, Kurant is more interested in creating systems for collective intelligences to evolve than just creating a form.
For example, in the series “A.A.I.”, she outsources work to termite colonies, fascinated by their ability to build intricate structures without hierarchical guidance. Kurant sees parallels between the exploitation of termites by corporations and the exploitation of human labor in digital capitalism. The title A.A.I. means artificial artificial intelligence, which is not a machine learning model but the aggregated labor of millions of people working online, simulating the work of an algorithm. Kurant stresses that artificial intelligence is currently a planetary system of exploiting the collective intelligence of our data because A.I. algorithms are trained on the digital footprints of all internet users.
Kurant’s works often serve as “traps,” visually appealing but embodying contemporary political and economic critiques. She investigates the invisible labor that sustains the digital economy, including the extraction of minerals for technology and the destruction of ecosystems. Through works like “Chemical Garden,” she creates quasi-life forms using chemicals mixed, reflecting on the intersection of the natural and artificial, organic and inorganic, digital, biological and mineral in our environment. She also explores the history of currencies and objects used for exchange, linking it to the evolution of digital currencies like Bitcoin. Additionally, Kurant’s works engage with the changing nature of technology and communication. For example, in “Conversions,” she uses artificial intelligence to capture online discussions and translate them into evolving paintings, reflecting the emotional impact of digital interactions.
Agnieszka Kurant was born in 1978 in Lodz, Poland. She is the recipient of the 2019 Frontier Art Prize and the 2020 LACMA A+T Award. Her solo shows include Castello di Rivoli (2021), Mudam Luxemburg (2024), Hannover Kunstverein (2023), and Sculpture Center (2013). In 2015, she created a work for the façade of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and in 2021-22 a permanent commission for the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. Her works were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Pompidou Center, Istanbul Biennial; Sydney Biennial, Milano Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, the SFMOMA, the De Young Museum, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Frieze Projects and Performa Biennial. In 2010 she co-authored the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. In 2023, she was part of the exhibition The Irreplaceable Human at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Her upcoming exhibitions include the Gwangju Biennial and commissions for the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection in Paris, and the Centre Pompidou. Kurant’s monograph Collective Intelligence, co-edited by Stefanie Hessler and Jenny Jaskey will be published by Sternberg Press/ MIT Press in 2024. Agnieszka Kurant lives and works in New York.
Marc-Christoph Wagner interviewed Agnieszka Kurant in November 2023 at the library of Designmuseum Danmark.
Camera: Jarl Therkelsen Kaldan
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Signe Boe Pedersen and Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
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