Metka Zupanič

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Triennial of Slovenian contemporary art, Modern Gallery, Ljubljana;

SMS_004 PARANOIA is the latest in a series of projects exploring the use of mobile telephone technology for private and intimae communication (Confidante, SMS Brothel, SMS  City and SMS_ 004- Vienna). In my previous projects, I focused on the content aspects of parallel social relations, whereas in my current projects, I explore the radicalisation of the issue of the right to privacy and the growing ambiguity in the sphere of freedom of choice and anonymity of the individual.

In Vienna I explored the ”communication addiction” linked primarily to mobile phones and the internet. My associate in the project was Austrian psychotherapist Monika Ferdiny, who speaks about problems, caused by addiction to various communication devices.

The main focus of the project presented at the U3 exhibition is the intimate, private monitoring of users of contemporary communication channels (internet telephone technology, such as Skype, Voip, Google talk and SMS, etc.)  Like in my previous projects, I’m especially interested in textual messages. The project reveals the tendency for constant monitoring of a certain individual (one’s partner, co-worker, friend…) and the outcome of this obsession with constant search. This virtual search results in anxiety, loneliness and complete alienation from the real world. These communication channels have become artificial limbs of the contemporary individual, which means that we feel incomplete and lost if we do not have opportunity to use them.