Concept

Engagement is a way of capturing attention, a way of alluring and a way of enticing to possess ownership. We could implement this as a way of attracting an audience, being drawn into a system and in turn be captivated. Such methods can include smoke screens, masquerade and stings.

We can be engaged in political upheaval and in contrast engaged to be married. Either way if one shows the willingness to engage then they are seized, arrested and caught, through an innocent human desire to absorb and be engrossed.

What happens when this engagement is done in a malicious, unlawful and corrupted way? When does the real become hyper-real? Entrapment is the process of this transition to occupy whether through political, artistic or personal systems.

What is the ethical concern over this? Is the viewer guilty for being engrossed in a piece of work that is deemed vulgar or inappropriate; a guilty pleasure? Is the accused guilty until proven innocent? Is the artist wrongly committed for a self-indulgent expression? Does this polarity repel or assist the convicted?

International artists have been invited to submit work which explores a subversive engagement, use tactics and trickery to captivate and which contests rules and laws of a system. Aesthetically, artists works entices the audience, engages them in viewing and ultimately entrap them into the work. Will the viewer be engrossed, cheated or convicted?

Works featured include traditional art forms of photography, painting and sculpture but also the contemporary processes of interventions, installations and new media.

Flyer

Flyer

Paola Minekov



UK/Israel

 'Pixel - Engage with Your Digital Self'   

Metal Leaf, Pencil and Acrylic paint 

€1120

Pixel - Web of Gold explores the impact of new technology and social media on our contemporary lives and the way we relate to the world. While we live in fascinating times, I wonder how much we stand to lose by letting go of the way life used to be and the way we used to connect to others. A certain level of purely human physical connection, perhaps? A complete experience of the present? A sense of touch, smell, time and space? Does digital immediacy and instant gratification benefit or overwhelm and entrap us?