During ISCP Fall Open Studios I made an exhibition presentation about my current research and about ‘Mystic Variete’ a tendency of a young generation of artists, who indulges in absurdist and seemingly spiritual practices that reacts against the stultifying rationalism of the neoliberal society. This generation consists mainly of women, including Shana Moulton, Momu & No Es and Melanie Bonajo. The artists draw their inspiration from the digital era, popular culture and mysticism. While the digital and the spiritual seem to be two worlds apart, American writer and theorist Erik Davis argues in TechGnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information (1998) that technological communication always been permeated by esoteric and religious impulses. Davis illustrates this on the basis of science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick, who have thoroughly explored the seemingly paradoxical relationship between the occult and contemporary technology.

Generously supported by the Mondriaan Fund