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Otolith Group is a duo of artists who live in London and that, since 2000, they’ve been working on the cross between imagination and the real world, between the fictionalization of reality and the realisation of fiction. The members, Anjailika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, chose this important conceptual focus because, according to them, there’s a lack of imagination in today’s world, as well as a lack of storytelling, and these deficiencies are some of the main reasons which are stopping the elaboration of possible alternatives to the order which surrounds us, which is perceived more and more all the time as wrong and unbalanced.

Precisely, balance is one of the aspects which is the base of the project: Otolith Group takes its name from the ‘otoliths’, which are crystals which are found in the vestibular system of many organisms and which allows it to find out the weight and direction of gravity. The otoliths are extremely important for the orientation of the human being in a space with gravity, like the Earth.

One of the most interesting studies carried out by this group is the ‘microgravity’ one. Anjalika and Kodwo imagined the consequences of an entire generation of human beings born in microgravity conditions (which is the closest you can get to the lack of gravity, which doesn’t exist in universal space). It’s about, evidently, pretexts for a metaphorical thought on today’s world, and its approaches always pay careful attention to the international political situation (to which they’re both very aware of).

One of the most interesting videos on the work of fiction and reality is ‘Hydra Decapita’. Here, the duo postulates the possibility of a new human race born under the ocean of slaves who have died in its waters during the crossings. The whole video plays with a visual ambiguity between the light game which the water creates when you take away its intermediate shades (leaving only a movement of blacks and whites) and a possible alphabet through which the ocean’s inhabitants would communicate with.

You can find more information in the official website: http://www.otolithgroup.org/

The subtitle of the exhibition ‘The Mode of Thought’, makes reference to a book published in 1901 by Charles W. Leadbeater and the feminist and socialist activist Annie Wood Besant. In this text, the authors think about nature and the power of thought.

The exhibition will open its doors on October 7th and it can be visited until February 5th at the MAXXI Museum in Rome (located on Via Guido Reni, 4A).

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If you don’t know this original project, we recommend you rent apartments in Rome and take the chance to the discover the vibrant artistic and cultural world of the Italian city.

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Translated by: aleixgwilliam
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Kutlug Ataman is a Turkish artist and filmmaker whose work brilliantly transcends the boundary between reality and fiction. His videos explore the fragility of personal identity, and the artist is particularly interested in individuals who are outside conventional social categories. What Ataman really finds striking are the outsiders, those who no longer have much to lose, but so much to gain. Thus, his artifice reasserts with absolute certainty the notion that identity is not firmly rooted in the individual, and more like a costume we put on daily.

And this is where the Ataman’s work takes on a fascinating strength and depth. If identity is challenged as the primary basis and foundation of all that is our reality, our life becomes a complexly textured interplay between real memories and imagination, between fact and fantasy. In his work, Ataman displays, consequently, the obvious intersections between these two terms, diluting, finally, the boundary between reality and fiction.

As of September 12 Rome’s MAXXI has been home to one of his most recent and ambitious works, a video installation titled “Mesopotamian Dramaturgies”, in which Ataman once again, takes up the issue of the construction of identity, without losing sight of its social dimension. Ataman returned to Turkey, as an intermediate point between east and west, where this contradiction between two worlds is evident, to examine points of the fragile collective identity that generate shock. Once again the protagonists are marginal figures, who are on the verge of forging cultural and social identities.

Rent apartments in Rome and be sure to catch this fantastic exhibition at the MAXXI.