Sync, Psych, Self (sic) : The Performance Event

13/08/2018 - 13/08/2018

Curated by:

• Stephanie Ballantine

Artists Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Lena Chen, Esben Holk, Stephanie Ballantine, Voin de Voin &
Delaine Le Bas examine “The Self Portrait” through a 10-hour performance happening, deconstructing modes of self-portrait creation as well as approaching our collective understanding of the concept.

Self psych sync (sic) is a politically motivated event series examining the potentially therapeutic place of the self portrait. At FK-Galerie we have in the past used durational performance and digital apparatus as a way to reflect on artistic motivations, projections and processes, particularly the non-commercial heritage and ideology of performance art.

Urban Dictionary:
sync
to be in a same state of mind or thinking
Psych
To retract your previous statement, in an attempt to fool the person you’re talking/chatting to.
self
The field of psychology attempts to define it with circular definitions. The truth is, we don’t really know how to define self… not objectively at least.
In a few words, self is consciousness. Consciousness escapes objective description (poor example: your experience of the colour red, is it the same as mine?). If a definition requires an objective description, then self is un-definable.
sic
(sic) (Latin for “thus”) is a bracketed expression used to indicate that an unusual spelling, phrase, or any other preceding quoted material is intended to be read or printed exactly as shown (rather than being an error) and should not be corrected. When found in a French document, (sic) stands for “Sans Intention Comique” (without comic intention) meaning that even if the preceding text could be understood as funny, it was not meant to be. It is used by writers quoting someone to alert the reader to the fact that an error or other weirdness in the quoted material is in the original, and not an error of transcription. “Sic” is almost always enclosed in parentheses.

Oxford Dictionary.com:
sync:
= Synchronization.
The operation or activity of two or more things at the same time or rate.
psych:
1) short for psychiatric
2)(as adjective psyched) Mentally prepare (someone) for a testing task or occasion.
self:
A person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.
sic:
Used in brackets after a copied or quoted word that appears odd or erroneous; to show that the word is quoted exactly as it stands in the original
= Latin, literally ‘so, thus’.

[{“CIBELLE”(CAVALLI}BASTOS )]
cibelle.tumblr.com
Lives and works between London, Berlin and São Paulo. The artist graduated in 2015 from Royal College of Art, London. Cibelle Cavalli Bastos has released four music albums and has performed and presented work in Martin Gropius Bau, Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, ICA London, Carnegie Hall New York, Serpentine Marathon, 28th and 31st São Paulo Biennial among others.
[{“CIBELLE”(CAVALLI}BASTOS )] describes themself as an afab non-binary, gender non-conforming person, they have an interdisciplinary practice that includes performance, sound art, objects and Installation. Their work addresses the deconstruction and formation of identities and what stands in between the self and presence as our multi-selves.

Stephanie Ballantine
stephanieballantine.com
Stephanie Ballantine is an interdisciplinary artist working with photography, performance, video and design. Her field of interest includes areas such as: techno-capitalism, commoditised sexuality, political identity, and agency. In her work she embodies the roles of ‘The Alchemist’, ‘The Mystic’, ‘The Hysteric’ and ‘The Researcher’ playing with expressions of queer identity, surveillance as ‘the Gaze’, absurdity, bondage, pop and trash…
Solo and group exhibitions including;  Aether, Sofia; Eigenart-Lab Berlin; Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Space Gallery, Puerto Rico; Pantocrátor Gallery Shanghai; NGBK Berlin; ’Crashpad’ KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds. 
She studied studied BA Politics and Philosophy as well as FD Photography in England before moving to Berlin where she currently resides. She is an organiser and curator at FK-Galerie and FK-Kollektiv Berlin.

Lena Chen
elleperil.com
explores women’s identity and trauma through performance and text. One of the earliest documented cases of “revenge porn”, Chen embarked on a five-year experiment living under an alternate identity as nude model “Elle Peril” to reclaim agency over her image and narrative. A graduate of Harvard College, she has spoken internationally at Oxford, Stanford, Yale and SXSW. Her work has been funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Delegation of the European Union to the United States, and Puffin Foundation.

Esben Holk
houseofkilling.net
from HOUSEOFKILLING is a BFA graduate from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design, he has shown across Europe and the US, including Eigen + art lab, DE, WhiteBoxGallery DE, Museum of Human Achievement TX, Landmark NO and Susanne Ottesen DK.
with a background in creative coding, browser-based experiences and performative strategies. Concerned with the absence of ontological density in the material and notional existence of produced entities, such as the queer, he has been researching the agility of the proposed borders that define such objects. Vehemently anti-essentialist and anti-naturalist, the posthuman artist proactively approaches the sensation of being a lost entity as a weapon in a revolution.

Delaine Le Bas 
delebas.blogspot.com
Delaine Le Bas studied at St Martins School Of Art London. Delaine is a cross disciplinary artist creating installations, performance, photography and film.
Delaine le bas is a British artist from a Romany heritage “Her work moves expansively from a unique series of thematic departures including nationhood, race, gender and relationships. -wikipedia
She has exhibited at amount many others: Prague Biennale, Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Zacheta National Gallery Of Art, MWW Wroclaw Contemporary Art Museum, Tate Modern, London. Delaine was one of the curators  for 1st Roma Biennale 2018 and is an Associate Curator at 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning London U.K. Delaine is one of the artists for Casablanca Biennale 2018 and Athens Biennale 2018.

Voin de Voin
sariev-gallery.com/artists/voin-de-voin
Voin de Voin works in various fields of the visual arts, ranging from performance to installation, incorporating his research in collective rituals, psycho-geography, sociology, psychology and new media.
Voin de Voin lives and works in Sofia. He holds an MA from DasArts, Amsterdam, and diploma from Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, Goldsmith College, London, EICAR –International School for film and cinema of Paris. He is running an independent art space in Sofia called ÆTHER and is represented by Sariev Contemporary, Plovdiv.
He has participated and shown in numerous international art institutions and events such as: Documenta 14, Athens (off space);  Manifesta 11, Zurich; Venice Biennale; Melbourne International Art Festival; MoМА, New York; Hetveem Theatre, Amsterdam; Tanja Leighton Gallery, Berlin; France Fiction Gallery, Paris; Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair; and De Appel Art Centre, Amsterdam among many others.