Workation loops four self-portraits of the artist reclining while at work across four screens of increasing size: a smartphone, a laptop, and two LCD monitors. The screens rest on cushions and carpet, in a yellow space between office and beach. In the four videos Caesar holds a smartphone, where viewers can see the initial stock images Caesar retrieved from googling the contradictory term “workation”, showing “flexible” individuals subsumed by the productive forces of capitalism. Caesar is shown in a hammock, at the beach, in bed, and on an idyllic balcony, but rather than relaxing, she misuses these places of leisure as working sites, which also become “material” for her art. Workation presents an embodied critique of the demands for 24-hour availability, or “remote presence”, that modern technology enables - and instead meditates on collective exhaustion.
Workation, 2019 Videoinstallation
Workation (praia) 2‘17“ Workation (cama) 3‘27“ Workation (papel) 3‘42“ Workation (rede) 3‘07“ Tired Mobiles (Exausta), 2019
With the support of the Flemish government and the Flanders Department of Culture, Youth and Media.
Sofia Caesar - Rooted in dance practices and somatic therapies, Sofia Caesar’s work evokes physical states between activity and passivity, labour and rest, movement and pause. Acknowledging the intimate effects of technology on our bodies and minds, as well as the physical demands of productivity, her installations often summon stillness, slowness, and repose. Her practice spans the relationship between the Latin American avant-gardes, the role of the contemporary artist, and the aesthetics of leisure as appropriated by international tech corporations.
