Marc Lee

Me, Myself & I

FILE Sao Paulo 2019
Electronic Language International Festival

 

‘Me, Myself & I’ questions egocentrism and narcissism as widespread contemporary phenomena and their most popular, infamous manifestation: the selfie culture. The digital era emphasizes the individual, who are seen more and more at the center of society, rather than being part of it. As seen in the selfie culture, selfishness and narcissism are widespread: we send mini-me’s into the increasingly important virtual space of our society to make others aware of who we are and, most importantly, who we wish to be. Fiction, fantasies, exhibitionism, confessions, self-indulgence, and solipsism are the motifs and drivers of our virtual lives, with corporations and media shaping our (perceived) reality and recklessly exploiting our desires and fantasies, leading us further away from reality. The persistent representation of the lives of others also pressurizes us to depict ourselves, designing our own lives as an object and strengthening the spiraling staging of ‘self’ through selfies and body cults. This is where ‘Me, Myself & I’ steps in and offers us an opportunity to develop new states of perception. In the virtual environment, images and reality are perceived unmistakably and unambiguously as being mutually incompatible. This helps the participant to decouple externally constructed realities from their natural environment.

Performance: Sara Hong

Bio.

Marc Lee (born 1969) is a Swiss artist. He creates networkoriented interactive art projects, interactive installations, media art, internet art, performance art, video art, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mobile apps. He is experimenting with information and communication technologies and his contemporary art practice reflects his creative, cultural, social, economic and political concerns. His works have been shown in major museums and new media art exhibitions, including ZKM Karlsruhe, New Museum New York, Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, HMKV Dortmund, HeK Basel, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Read_Me Festival Moscow, CeC Dehli, MoMA Shanghai, ICC Tokyo, Nam June Paik Art Center, Media Art Biennale and MMCA Seoul. He lectures, teaches and delivers workshops on art and software art in art schools around the world, including the China Academy of Art (CAA) Hangzhou, Strelka Moscow, Shanghai Institute of Visual Art (SIVA), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Seoul and ZHdK Zurich. Marc Lee has won many prizes and honorary mentions at international festivals, including the “Interaction” and “Software” Awards at Transmediale Berlin and the SocialMedia-Art-Award at Phaenomenale Wolfsburg. His art is included in private and public collections such as the Swiss Confederation Federal Art Collection Bern, HeK Basel, Fotomuseum Winthertur and the ZKM Karlsruhe.