PELIN TAN and ANTON VIDOKLE
RIVERSIDE PARK
The second episode of 2084 is the latest in a three-part science fiction show, directed by Pelin Tan and Anton Vidokle. Filmed on location in Tripoli, Lebanon, this video is set in a future where the Artists’ Republic, an artist-run city-state, has collapsed and art has become a thing of the past. Despite the demise of art, artists inexplicably continue to exist, albeit as animals. These new animal-humans are trapped in a cement dome where they ponder questions of labor, economy, religion, art and literature, while trying to come to terms with their new condition.
Anton Vidokle (b. Moscow) is an artist based in New York and Berlin. As a founder of e-flux he has produced projects such as DO iT, Utopia Station Poster Project, Pawnshop, An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life, the Martha Rosler Library, Time/Bank, e-flux video rental and unitednationsplaza. Vidokle is co-editor of e-flux journal along with Julieta Aranda and Brian Kuan Wood. Vidokle’s work has been exhibited internationally, in venues such as the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) and Documenta 13 (2012). He has directed several films including 2084: A science fiction show (2012-2014) with Pelin Tan, which has been exhibited at the Bergen Assembly (2013), La Biennale de Montréal (2014), the Istanbul Biennial (2015), Home Works 7, Beirut (2015) and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2016). Vidokle’s series of films on the Russian Cosmists, This Is Cosmos (2014) and The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun (2015) have been exhibited and screened internationally at the Shanghai Biennale (2014) Witte de With, Rotterdam, (2015), the 65th and 66th Berlinale International Film Festival, Forum Expanded (2015, 2016), the Moscow Biennale (2015); amongst many others.
Pelin Tan is a researcher based in Mardin, Turkey where she is associate professor at the Architecture Faculty of Mardin Artuklu University. After studying sociology, Tan continued onto graduate education in contemporary art and art history and postdoctoral work on the subject of artistic research at MIT. She is currently conducting an architectural project, funded by Mardin Artuklu University, on refugee camps in Southeast Turkey. Tan is also investigating the topic of labor in art with Önder Özengi and the future history of art/work with Anton Vidokle. She has participated in several exhibitions including the Montreal Biennial (2014) and Lisbon Architecture Triennial (2013). Tan holds a visiting research professorship at Hong Kong Polytechnic Design Faculty, is a member of the video collective Artıkişler and The Silent University and curator of Actopolis Project (2015 – 2017). She has published widely on urbanism, architecture, and contemporary art.
Pelin Tan and Anton Vidokle
2084: A Science Fiction Show / Episode 2: The Fall of Artists’ Republic, 2014
video installation
Photos: Devon Lindsay