COMPLICITY REPORT Installation, chalk drawing, 2-part video / monitors

The video on the left samples found footage of a globalized, sometimes luxurious lifestyle reality with montaged invitations to participate (for free) – the protagonist in the monitor opposite hedonistically circles around herself, illuminated by digital tracking codes and accompanied by an anonymous voice confessing her complicity.

„In her work, Silvia Beck addresses the special rights that individual persons or
groups claim for themselves, rights which represent an exception from normal regulations. The fantasy of the self-defined, uncontrolled exception is linked to a status of privilege. Silvia Beck examines issues like privileged statuses that purport to be rights but actually represent a form of presumption, a demand for special conditions and special treatment contrasted with a deficit of rights. Privilege entails having more rights, which undermines the general principle of rights equality. As a consequence, this means less rights for, and discrimination against, others ...
Silvia Beck is interested in the suggestive imagination that is linked to special rights. As a consequence, personal information is published by choice in exchange for the promise of advantageous treatment on the one hand, but also to generate attention for oneself and one’s status. this data is then used for categorising and predicting behaviour, to apply targeted strategies to the consumer (target group). Ultimately, this means the curtailing of the private sphere and personal autonomy, the erosion of freedoms and opportunities for persecution.“

Sabine Winkler in: „As Rights go By – On the erosion and denial of rights“ (Exhibition catalog)

As part of the exhibition:
»As Rights Go By – Über Rechtsverlust und Rechtlosigkeit«, Group Show curated by Sabine Winkler, Freiraum Q21 at MuseumsQuartier Wien, 2016