Mission Accomplished: Belanciege

‘미션완료: 벨란시지’(2019)는 실제 상품을 넘어 소셜 미디어에서 만들어지고 업로드되고 공유되는 상품의 방식을 렉처 퍼포먼스 영상으로 풀어낸 작품이다. 슈타이얼이 사용한 용어 벨란시지는 브랜드 발렌시아가의 방식을 뜻하며, 정치, 대중문화, 경제의 영역까지 영향력을 행사하는 패션 데이터의 독특한 파급 현상을 일컫는다. 주요 논점 중 하나는 소셜 미디어를 통해 공유되는 상품 이미지가 사용자를 무급 노동자로 만든다는 것이다.

trans.Mission Accomplished: Belanciege (2019) unfolds, as a lecture-performance video, the way commodities are made, uploaded and shared on social media beyond the actual product. 'Belanciege', the term Steyerl uses, denotes the Balenciaga method, and names the peculiar ripple effect of fashion data that exerts influence across politics, popular culture and the economy. One of its central arguments is that commodity images shared through social media turn users into unpaid labourers.

박지윤 (Park Ji-yoon), VMSPACE, 2022-06-21 · in ko · read the full text

Geht man schließlich um die Leinwand herum, so gelangt man zu der auf drei Bildflächen präsentierten Lecture Performance „MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE“, 2019. Gemeinsam mit den Künstlern Giorgi Gago Gagoshihzide und Milos Trakilovic hat Steyerl hier einen mit diversen Bildern, Videos und Musik unterfütterten Vortag konzipiert, der die politischen Veränderungen vor allem in Europa nach dem „wind of change“ (Scorpions) - selbstverständlich ist der Song da zu hören - des Mauerfalls 1989 reflektiert. U. a. am Beispiel des Luxuslabels „Balenciaga“ wird hier den Verknüpfungen von Konsum- und Protestverhalten, von Identitätspolitiken und nationalistischem Rechtsruck nachgespürt. Bilder von Modenschauen sind ebenso in den Vortrag eingebaut wie solche von politischen Demonstrationen z. B.. Symbolträchtig ist da ein Foto, das die weltweit erfolgreiche „Instergramerin“ Kim Kardashian Seite an Seite mit US-Präsident Trump im Weißen Haus zeigt.

trans.Walking around the screen, you reach the lecture performance MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE (2019), presented across three picture surfaces. Together with the artists Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović, Steyerl has conceived a talk underpinned with assorted images, videos and music, reflecting on the political changes — above all in Europe — after the “wind of change” (Scorpions) of the fall of the Wall in 1989; the song is of course played. Using the luxury label Balenciaga as one example, it traces the links between consumer and protest behaviour, between identity politics and the nationalist shift to the right. Images of fashion shows are built into the talk alongside images of political demonstrations. One photograph is especially laden with symbolism, showing the globally successful “Instagrammer” Kim Kardashian side by side with US President Trump in the White House.

Raimar Stange, artmagazine.cc, 2019-12-02 · in German · read the full text

De video-installatie bestaat uit drie verticale, menshoge schermen die aan de rand van tribune staan, een structuur die is omkleed met Ikea-blauw velours. Het is een arena, waarin drie sprekers het publiek vanaf de schermen toespreken: Hito, Giorgi en Miloš speechen op TED Talk-achtige wijze en ontvouwen een samenzweerderige theorie die het succes van modemerk Balenciaga in verband brengt met het succes van Trump. De eerste woorden worden onder het fluittoontje van Wind of Change van Scorpions uitgesproken door Trakilović: ‘Dertig jaar geleden viel de Berlijnse Muur. Of niet?’ Het wereldberoemde nummer van de West-Duitse band wordt vaker in verband gebracht met de val van de muur, en de revolutie van 1989, en duikt nog vaker op in de 47-minuut durende film.

trans.The video installation consists of three vertical, human-height screens standing at the edge of a stand, a structure clad in IKEA-blue velour. It is an arena, in which three speakers address the audience from the screens: Hito, Giorgi and Miloš give TED Talk-style speeches and unfold a conspiratorial theory linking the success of the fashion label Balenciaga to the success of Trump. The first words are spoken by Trakilović over the whistled opening of the Scorpions' Wind of Change: “Thirty years ago the Berlin Wall fell. Or did it?” The world-famous song by the West German band is often connected with the fall of the Wall and the revolution of 1989, and recurs still more often across the 47-minute film.

Maurits de Bruijn, Mister Motley, 2022-03-04 · in nl · read the full text

Steyerl decided to celebrate the failed appropriation, and claimed Belanciege as the name of a future enterprise whose brand value will not merely be created by its users, but also owned and managed by them. During the exhibition, this hypothetical brand was prominently advertised in the street-facing windows of the Kunstverein, which were plastered with white “Belanciege” logos on black foil; later, the campaign appeared in print, in a double-page spread in the global street newspaper Arts of the Working Class. In the video, Steyerl is about to elaborate on how exactly such a brand might work, when she is interrupted by an incoming call: as she speaks off to the side, we understand that it is Balenciaga calling, offering her an influencer deal. The story would have been incomplete if Balenciaga hadn’t later asked in earnest. The artists declined.

Kolja Reichert, 032c, 13 May 2020 · read the full text