ENACTING POPULISM

An on-going project on the possible relationships between art practices and the populist mediascape that connotes the current political zeitgeist of Europe
from Foundland, Simba, the last prince of Ba’ath country, 2012.  For Enacting Populism, Foundland shows work based on an on-going investigation of pro-regime propaganda images which are created by the Syrian Electronic army and distributed on Facebook. By working with an archive of Photoshop engineered, mysterious worlds Foundland unravels the logic and utopian vision of a regime which has legitimated the deaths of thousands of Syrians since 2011.  For the Enacting Populism show at the Kadist Foundation, Foundland presents a video installation and accompanying publication entitled: “Simba, the last prince of Ba’ath country”. The publication traces the functioning of Facebook and social media for the distribution of digital propaganda, and highlights ways in which these strategies are currently being countered and undermined by activists. Foundland’s video installation is a playful re-interpretation of stock images before these images became used for propaganda, sketching a placeholder-rife political visual landscape.

from Foundland, Simba, the last prince of Ba’ath country, 2012. 

For Enacting Populism, Foundland shows work based on an on-going investigation of pro-regime propaganda images which are created by the Syrian Electronic army and distributed on Facebook. By working with an archive of Photoshop engineered, mysterious worlds Foundland unravels the logic and utopian vision of a regime which has legitimated the deaths of thousands of Syrians since 2011. 

For the Enacting Populism show at the Kadist Foundation, Foundland presents a video installation and accompanying publication entitled: “Simba, the last prince of Ba’ath country”. The publication traces the functioning of Facebook and social media for the distribution of digital propaganda, and highlights ways in which these strategies are currently being countered and undermined by activists. Foundland’s video installation is a playful re-interpretation of stock images before these images became used for propaganda, sketching a placeholder-rife political visual landscape.