The Fries Museum will present the exhibition Constant Dullaart: This Unjust Mirror from 10 October 2020 to 14 February 2021. The work of this conceptual artist revolves around the Internet. Constant Dullaart (Leiderdorp, 1979) has long been researching fake accounts on social media, advertising and propaganda: themes that are more topical now than ever before. His work reflects on the broader social and cultural effects of our manipulation by new media. This presentation of Dullaart’s work in the Fries Museum is also his first solo museum exhibition.
‘Anyone can open an online account on Facebook, Instagram, Google, Snapchat, Twitter or Telegram in no time at all, says Hanne Hagenaars, curator of the exhibition. ‘Likes are the measure of your success on these platforms. Every ‘Instagrammer’ is enthused by a lot of likes, but the strange thing is that you can also buy them. There is a large market for this. People work day in and day out in countries like India and Bangladesh, creating fake accounts that are used to place those likes for the clients.’
oscar wilde
A new poem by Dullaart, based on the words of the character Lord Henry Wotton from The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, forms the basis of his first solo museum exhibition. It is an encounter and a game with the Internet, disposable identities, propaganda and media criticism. The exhibition in Leeuwarden takes the visitor on an adventurous journey through the dizzying world of online propaganda, fake news and fake followers. What is real and what is not real on the Internet? And when are we looking at the artist’s work? And when not?
constant dullaart
Constant Dullaart is a former resident of the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Amsterdam. Dullaart mostly lives and works in Berlin, but he also works regularly in Amsterdam, and is part of the Rapid Response Residency of Eyebeam in New York. In 2015 he received the Prix Net-Art, the international prize for Internet art. His works have been exhibited in MCA, Chicago; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Import Projects, Berlin; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and MAAT, Lisbon. Dullaart has curated several exhibitions and taught at universities and academies all over Europe.
The Fries Museum is co-financed by the Abe Bonnema Foundation, the Province of Friesland, the North Netherlands Cooperation, EZ/Kompas and the BankGiro Lottery.