The video artist Margarita Maximova (°1990) was born in Moscow, grew up and studied in Belgium (Luca School of Arts, Ghent) and now lives and works in Berlin. She won the 2014 Prize of the Friends of S.M.A.K. as part of the Coming People exhibition of recently graduated young artists.
A strikingly recurring element of Maximova’s work are the natural and urban landscapes that slip by and shroud her films in a subdued, melancholic, almost hypnotic atmosphere. A story is told through voice-overs and subtitles, and questions are raised by an anonymous narrator that never appears.
Within her video practice, Maximova analyses psychological and emotional concepts concerning the use of language in the Internet age, conspiracy theories, communication between animals or autobiographical themes.
Her more recent work highlights the endless daily stream of images, opinions, questions and answers we are exposed to online.
At De Vereniging the artist shows a new video installation that elaborates on her video installation Modern Tongue Sweats (2018), in which she uses various fragments to develop and bend this contemporary theme. The Affect Heuristic, the title of this exhibition, refers to the unconscious mental process in which people make decisions and act on the basis of emotions. Through media manipulation, our egocentric society makes eager use of this principle.
Friends of S.M.A.K. produced a limited edition with Margarita Maximova.
