Otoliths can cause dizziness and vertigo. Small calcium crystals suspended in liquid inside the inner ear, they provide the organism with the information it needs to maintain balance. A lift stopping suddenly or the violent rocking of a yacht can cause the otholiths to become abruptly displaced, placing the entire body in a state of alert.
The Otolith Group, an artist-led collective founded in London in 2000 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, takes its name from these tiny crystals, whose existence the immense majority are unaware of, but which are vital for life.
The group’s name was not adopted at random, and spectators are invited to discover the reasons behind this choice. Under the title The Otolith Group. Thoughtform, MACBA, the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), firstly, and MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, in Rome, subsequently, will host a large proportion of the works the group has produced to date. The show enables visitors to explore an unusual working method that, through films, texts, science fiction posters, photographs and other materials, documents the complex decision-making processes that lead to the final work, reflecting on rather more than just the films shown. In reality, the exhibition is an exploration of the perception and nature of documentary practice, and the group’s films therefore “expand”, acquiring the effect of a collage of images that create a new atlas narrating the different forms taken by post-colonial situations.
From Cold War ideology to global capitalism processes, recent history appears as fragments of a personal diary which, in turn, could be fiction. Finally, parallel to the Barcelona showing of the exhibition and coinciding with the LOOP Festival, the MACBA Auditorium will host the world premiere of the second part of Hydra Decapita, The Otolith Group’s new trilogy, co-produced with the MACBA Foundation.
Dates: February 4 to May 29, 2011. Curator: Chus Martínez. Exhibition organised by: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and coproduced in cooperation with the Fondazione MAXXI, Rome. Dates MAXXI from mid-September 2011 to early 2012.
Anjalika Sagar (1968) was born and lives and works in London. She studied Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her work includes film and video compositions, curatorial projects, moderation, and production. She is interested in the relations between sound, text and image, archive and the legacies and potentials of the essay film. Sagar has produced numerous projects, including the large-scale production No Arrival No Parking with the composer Heiner Goebbels for the Almeida Theatre (London). She is a co-founder of the artists’ collective the Otolith Group and the founder of Multitudes.
Kodwo Eshun (1967) was born and lives and works in London. Studied English Literature at University College, Oxford University. His published work includes critical analysis, catalogue essays and magazine articles. His art projects include film and video compositions that coalesce around the notions of the audiovisual archive and archaeologies of futurity. He regularly presents papers at international conferences and symposia and has chaired discussions, moderated dialogues and debates. Author of the More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction (Quartet, 1998), he is a co-founder of the artists' collective the Otolith Group and a regular contributor to the magazines Frieze, The Wire and Sight and Sound.
