Live Alone, Die Together: Master Institute of Visual Cultures 2021 Graduation Show

St. Joost School of Art & Design Master Institute of Visual Cultures is pleased to present the 2021 graduation show “Live Alone, Die Together” on thecurrent.is. Organized during times of uncertainty, the quality of being dangerously likely to fall or collapse marks our exhibition.

“Live Alone, Die Together” refers to the feeling of fragility that lingers beneath our human structures, calling into question our grand plans for prosperity, progress, and permanence. It is no longer possible to ignore that humanity is connected to a broader ecosystem that is increasingly unbalanced, making many of us question what really matters, togetherness. “Live alone” suggests the condition of loneliness that we experience as we are atomized within the cells of our homes, living through the two-dimensional, virtual world during the pandemic. Yet, beyond Covid-19, the exhibition’s title refers to our contemporary life, the privatization and bounded individualism of capitalist and technological accelerationism in which collectivity and shared spaces are no longer a given. “Die together” stresses the importance of shared bonds through turbulent times. It is a promise that as a collective we can face the inevitable, even until the very end. 

The practices of graduates from the visual art and post-contemporary practices and situated design courses range from painting and sculpture to moving images. Some question the boundaries between each other, creating ecosystems of entangled trails and unruly queer bodies subsumed by growing organic matter, while others explore the friction that arises between their own and others’ cultural identities. Regardless of the versatility of the practices, all critically engage with the pre-established ways of looking at the world. The work is about destabilizing the stable, revealing the turbulence, and staying with the trouble of the present to open new ways of seeing.

Dive deeper into the works of Master Institute of Visual Cultures graduates by visiting the online exhibition on thecurrent.is.