Academia (AGENDA)

Towards the end of Privilege and after its conclusion on social media, Ulman conducted a performative lecture titled AGENDA at various universities and cultural institutions around the world. Presented through a live Powerpoint presentation filled with a menagerie of static and moving visual ephemera accompanied by sound effects and a live narration by the artist, the AGENDA lecture was effectively an artwork in and of itself, and went on to be presented as such in the exhibition Everyone Is Rich Now Apparently, a joint venture by galleries Arcadia Missa & Supplement.

Universities & Institutions visited with AGENDA

❑  Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany (2017)

❑ University of Fine Arts Hamburg, Germany (2017)

❑ Offenbach University of Art and Design, Germany (2017)

❑ Kunstverein München, Germany (2017)

❑ Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado, USA (2017)

❑ Regional State Archives in Gothenburg, Sweden (2016)

❑ Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria (2017)

❑ Sci Arc, Los Angeles, USA (2017

❑  Pratt Institute, New York, USA (2016)

❑  School of Visual Arts, SVA, New York, USA (2016)

❑  Cooper Union, New York, USA (2016)

❑ Mc Gill University, Montreal, Canada (2016)

❑ China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (2018)

❑ INDEX, Stockholm, Sweden (2018)

❑ PLUG IN ICA, Winnipeg, Canada(2018)

 

AGENDA

AGENDA is a staged lecture comprised of powerpoint presentation, live performance and sound effects. It narrates the storyline of the online performance Privilege from a behind-the-scenes vantage point.

Using poetic language to narrate self experimentation with female hormones and the effects of excess estrogen in a body trapped between the carpeted floors and ceiling tiles of her DTLA office -a tight structure of vertical structures, linearity and clocks.

This dreamlike storyline later develops into a series of cons and scams, economies of appearances and the rise and fall of Bob The Pigeon, an ode to a working class hero which finishes with pessimistic spiritual notes that the author recognizes as selfish, recognizing the entitlement of her nihilism, escapism and ability to complain to carry its own privilege.

Like previous video-essays /performative lectures ("Buyer, Walker, Rover", "The Future Ahead" and "Annals of Private History"), AGENDA mixes academic formats (dry aesthetics, Harvard Style Harvard Quotations) with lowly language, hyper-feminine soft tones and songs to create fictional or semi-fictional worlds, questioning hyper-theoritization and challenging the legitimacy of academia itself.