Screen Intervention with Geraldine Juárez: The Fish Don’t See the Water


In her writing, the Mexican and Swedish artist Geraldine Juárez (*1977) critically dissects the history of the Google Cultural Institute in relation to colonial and imperial practices of prospecting, documenting and exhibiting, which are crucial to rendering the imaginaries that consolidate the power of the West and its institutions. In her screen intervention The Fish Don’t See the Water, Juárez contextualises the data-prospecting of art historical collections and their architectures executed by the Google Cultural Institute in the form of philanthropy, thus mirroring the very practices from which they emerged. Starting from the premise that exhibition formats are born out of a process of essayistic compilation, Juárez combines her performance PROSPEKT (2018) with other image-essays, formulating an artistic approach to institutional criticism which dislocates the potential of digital imaging and undermines the concept of the ‘world-as-a-digital-exhibition’.

This event is a collaboration with PhotoIreland 2020. The 11th edition of PhotoIreland Festival – Ireland’s international festival of photography and image culture –, entitled ON/OFF, combines a programme of online and offline activities and exhibitions.

The event is free and takes place on Zoom (register here). It will be live-streamed on our website: fotomuseum.ch/en/explore/situations/157268.