ME, The Total Show, an exhibition by british art collective Common Culture, curated by Vera Carmo.
The exhibition ME, The Total Show, contaminates Rampa’s space with contraptions related to the realm of spectacle and entertainment. Eagerly competing amongst each other, these constructions are capable of unsettling the least sensitive visitors. Upon entering the exhibition, we are compulsively greeted by a North-American media vlogger as several colored strobe-lights are activated by the strangely melancholic notes of electronic ballads. There is nobody at the DJ's station, giving away that the whole system is in auto-pilot. The dance floor is empty but the show goes on.
Common Culture purposely generated an environment that overstimulates all our senses to present a critical commentary on the most recent phase of capitalism and its repercussions on contemporary society - the “economy of attention”.
This exhibition is a gathering of spotlights - the stage, the screen, the runway - in which the spectators turn into actors to find themselves operating in a void, simultaneously deprived and emancipated from an audience who would provide meaning to their performances. The celebrity status, which until a few decades ago was a consequence of the complex hierarchy of the entertainment industry, is presently examined as a condition of everyday life, a narcissistic trap empowered by networked digital technology. Fulfilling the prophecies of Warhol and Debord, we all become famous but not just for 15 minutes, simply due to the spectacular and endlessly repetitive representation of ourselves in front of any device.
Thanks to Centro de Arte Oliva, ESMAD, Oficina Mescla, Sismógrafo.