In his new photographic series about various scenes in the art world, Wimo deletes the images of the artworks. In his five photographs, we scenes of people looking at whited-out objects in several typical art world moments: an exhibition in a gallery, a local art exchange, a biennale/Triennale, and an open space exhibition. He emphasizes the position of various agents of the contemporary art world – audience, curator, journalist, gallery owner, critic, academic, and other stakeholders – as the spectator. Each agent has a function in determining or affecting the dynamics of the contemporary art world, where the struggles over power are inevitable.
Wimo not only renders the original artworks absent, taking away their identities, he makes them seen as visual art practice; it is an attempt to continually question and edit a regime of images that are available almost as cliches. The artist offers us a game of frames: by deleting the artwork, making it unseen, and at the same time revealing it as the frame that can be seen and read.
Alia Swastika
Link to Catalogue
