FILE SÃO PAULO 2017 – Artist: Teun Vonk

FILE São Paulo 2017: Bubbling Universes

Bubbling universes
The emergence of social networks has led to a multiplicity of events on a scale never seen before. The unchecked proliferation of information has now reached an astonishing level and is stored in an unprecedented amount of storage, accessed by thousands of networked data devices. This exponential increase in accessible information overwhelms us all in an incessant and overwhelming flow of concepts, images, opinions and desires. No one is exempt from this cross-contamination, no discipline succeeds in remaining within set boundaries. The proliferation of worlds and tendencies carries us into an indeterminate plurality. All and everything is expanding, like a star in its Red Giant phase, ready to explode at any time. What was immense and infinite has become small when faced with the multiverse. We live in an age of bubbling universes.

Paula Perissinotto e Ricardo Barreto
FILE Founders and Organizers.

Teun Vonk
Biography:

After a long time of researching the human body in his photography and film practice, Teun Vonk has chosen a radically different direction in his approach to this subject: instead of working primarily from behind a desk, he has made his own body and that of the viewer far more central.
Where before the mechanical installations served solely as means to instigate a physical interaction, the provocative constructions themselves are now at the center of the work. Vonk wants to draw attention to, instead of just documenting that behavior, to give visitors the chance to undergo the experience themselves. Those who expect a spectacle, however, will be disappointed. Vonk’s work is a subtle, focused reminder of what the body is and what it is capable of.