OTHERWARE: Miloš Trakilović «In the Ruin of Representation»

«In the Ruin of Representation»: In 1977 philosopher Gilles Deleuze stated that “representation no longer exists -- there is only action” suggesting that representation, the dualist conjoining of world and word to produce meaning, had been taken apart, resulting in an overall circulation and flow of meaning. He was referring to computational technologies that allowed for the free flow of information ever since the early days of cybernetics.

In the framework of a post 1989 legacy, action largely meant seeing the depoliticization, destabilization and deregulation of the world by automated forces of computation. The advent of the digital era brought profound shifts in the powers of representation and the relationship between vision, truth and meaning. Digitization collapsed both language and image into the elusively coded content of data, giving rise to new regimes of visuality, capture and control.

Images today are no longer defined purely by their visual quality or pictorial politics (what they represent) but have gained operational characteristics, making them computable; profitable and in their very essence -- imperceptible. How can we unfold images from representational sights into actionable spaces? Taking an image from the Bosnian War as its starting point, In The Ruin of Representation will explore the affective power of image and language, and the conditions that emerge during times of ideological conflict, offering a critique of visible and invisible power structures, as well as our own complicity within them.

Miloš Trakilović is a Bosnian-Dutch artist. Following on from an undergraduate in Fine Art at the University of Arts, Berlin, Trakilović undertook an MFA in Experimental Film and New Media with a topical interest is the role of vision in the construction of meaning and production of power following the digital turnover. His work is most often situated within digital media in the form of moving image, installation, lectures and writings.

Recent exhibitions include All but War is Simulation, Callie’s, Berlin (2020) of bread, wine, cars, security and peace, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2020), Mission Accomplished: BELANCIEGE with Hito Steyerl and Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2019), Today's Art, The Hague (2018), Prospects & Concepts, Art Rotterdam (2018), Farocki Now: A Temporary Academy, Farocki Institute (2017), The Clouds is Where We Want To Be, Bethanien (2017), amongst others.

Miloš Trakilović has published texts in print and online including Power and Subversion in a Networked Age (Archive Books, DE) A Shot In The Arm (Zerozine, UK) and The Gamification of Life in Bullet Points (keen on Game Studies, AT) The World at Arm’s Length (Onomatopee, NL).