Michaela Lakova

Media, installatie, film, Audiovisueel, Artistiek onderzoek

Michaela Lakova (1987) is a visual artist and researcher based in Rotterdam. In her work she explores digital traces, the notion of erasure and memory and how they impact our perception of ownership. Through her works she challenges the slippery nature of digital memory over the immateriality of human memory. Her practice includes a diverse range of media: video, prints, found objects, web / screen based and installations. Michaela occasionally works as a videographer in the cultural sector in the Netherlands and abroad. She worked for Het Nieuwe Instituut, Piet Zwart Institute, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (BFMAF, UK), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Unseen and Goethe-Institut, Amsterdam among others.

Generative koplet (Revisited) - This video shows the behind-the-scenes of the data recovery process. Lakova positioned herself at the center, placing a hard disk into a SATA hard drive case and then she ran on the recovery software documenting every step of hers. The soundtrack of the video is the slightly distorted sound from a powered up and spinning hard disk.
Delete?No, Wait!Rewind (2014) - is an interactive installation which recovers images from hard drives without the consent or the knowledge of the previous owners, who presume their content has been deleted forever. The audience is prompted to choose whether to delete a recovered file or save it by publishing it online. Whether our storage devices are locally present (hard drives) or dislocated (the cloud), can we ever be certain our data has been deleted permanently? In an ongoing conversation about the impossibility of erasing digital traces, what role do we play? Are we plunderers, interpreters or mediators?
A manuscript of erasure (2017) - Immersive video, which explores themes of memory, absence and presence; what’s to be forgotten and/or remembered oscillating between city landscapes and an unknown desert located in the Middle East. The video depicts a larger question of how history operates and its complex apparatus of being erased and then reinvented again.
Memories of Slavutych - It’s an episode still outside our culture. Too traumatic for our culture. And our only answer is silence. We just close our eyes, like little children, and think we can hide. Something from the future is peeking out and it’s just too big for our minds. Too huge for us to handle. – Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Alexievich. Memories of Slavutych (2018) is a spacial sound installation composed of different field recordings which Michaela collected during her residency in Slavutych, Ukraine. This project is a result of her research into nuclear power, the Chernobyl accident and the notion of memory. From everyday life soundscapes recorded in Slavutych to Julia’s narrative voice during an obscure trip to the Exclusion Zone, all resonate under a white ribbon inviting the passersby to listen.
Past-Present: Utopian dream for a nu(un)clear future (2018) - is a result of Michaela’s research into nuclear power and the unfinished second nuclear power plant in Belene, Bulgaria. The video depicts a surrealist artistic intervention/ performance and a series of direct encounters with the security guards at the Belene construction site. It attempts to raise some serious questions about the current political status quo. What is the future of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant (NPP)? A promise? Is the nuclear power plant, a construction site dating back to 1987, a means to cheaper nuclear power, providing an export and economic prosperity to the region or is it just another corruption deal? The Belene NPP is rather a multi-layered political game which involves foreign interests and influence. Proven to be an uneconomic and an environmentally unfriendly project, it has already cost billions of euros worth in construction and equipment – a project frozen in time.
Article17 (2019) - An online poem based on Michaela’s ongoing research into the Right to erasure (also known as the Right to be forgotten) – a legislation allowing individuals to request search engines to delist their personal data. Lakova uses the official language of Article 17, part of General Data Protection Regulation( GDPR) accepted in May 2018 which introduces a new set of rules and regulations which aim to control how private companies collect, store, and use personal data. However this legislation remains difficult to comprehend outside of the world of law enforcement. With Article17, developed during her residency at x-temporary.org, Lakova is interested in ‘translating’ this rather complex text and set of definitions which ultimately enables the viewer to experience a new form of ‘uneasy’ reading.
Cold Storage (Revisited) - Enlarged photographs of common data storage devices are placed at the exhibition space along with four glass cubes, which create an optical illusion of disappearance of the circuit boards depicted in the photographs. While stored digital data might seem ephemeral or intangible, it does in fact have a physical presence in the real world. Cold Storage investigates the architectural dimensions of our storage devices and how they are translated into the physical world. The work proposes a poetic overview of the material quality of memory asking what is the future of digital storage: “a glass cold memory which lasts forever” or imperfect storage technology that can decay?
Earth Rebels (2021) - is an anthropological and artistic research into the indigenous Tzotzil carnival in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico combined with the sacral rituals of kukeri in and Shiroka Laka, Rhodope mountains, Bulgaria. What might be the commonalities between those two cultures dating back before the Spanish and Ottoman invasions? The artist takes her own journey into the depths of the spiritual self with its complex cultural and historical preconditions in order to open a dialogue about our collective memory.
Der Bien und der Garten (2021) - a film by Amy Pickles, Michaela Lakova and Bérénice Staiger; excerpt; full duration:10:35min; digital and analogue; German w/t English subtitles; The film follows the artist and beekeeper Bérénice Staiger, whose art and apiarist practices intertwine systems of care and attention. The camera oscillates between the choreographies of Bérénice, and fellow beekeeper Sophie Pauwels – observing, inspecting, maintaining, harvesting, almost as a self-reflection, these gestures also mimicking the actions of the bees in the hive.
Altered Voices (ongoing)

Tina Coupé part of Project Spaces Festival

Datum:
https://projectspacefestival.berlin/project-spaces/tina-coupe

Buna — Forum for Contemporary Art, Nature of Relations

Datum:
https://bunavarna.com/en

The Ghost of Culture

Datum:
Locatie: Humboldt forum
In samenwerking met: Singer-Zahariev Foundation
https://www.humboldtforum.org/en/the-ghost-of-culture/

Natura, natura-ta, part of Ecology and technology

Datum:
Locatie: Charta gallery
In samenwerking met: Arosita gallery

Insula Campo Verità

Datum:
Locatie: Verksmiðjan á Hjalteyri
In samenwerking met: CBK

Unknown Gods

Datum:
Locatie: c-l-e-a-r-i-n-g gallery
In samenwerking met: National Culture Fund of Bulgaria

When the memory box gets full we often invent and feel the need for rites and rituals to name those phases like the moon cycles. Thus representative fictions become active in the logic of structure and operations of bodies. We preserve the passage of life in different ways, sometimes it gets captured in images of a dream world, of strange mythology, that we as the creators often don't understand, we interpret.

Fabrication of dreams

Datum:
Locatie: forplay society
In samenwerking met: forplay society

The patches of fabrics re-tail the history of colonization nowadays. The act of deviation and hijacking of dreams along the lives of many, a new order to fabricate a better life elsewhere.
In our work, we hear voices of labor and exploitation, telling forgotten (hi)stories. A fishnet of words and collective imaginations regaining new prospects and agency in the postcolonial context. Can the process of decolonisation be subjected to our desire for common futures?

https://forplay-society.org/

Herbarium

Datum:
Locatie: Mission gallery
In samenwerking met: Embassy of the Netherlands Sofia
https://herbariumcollection.com/mihaela-lakova

From the shore to the Mudpool

Datum:
Locatie: Verksmiðinn in Hjalteyri
https://verksmidjanhjalteyri.com/

Liminal recollection..between memory and reality

Datum:
Locatie: Depoo gallery
In samenwerking met: DA Lab foundation

A fundamental principle of the hologram is "The part contains the whole and the whole is contained in the part". Michaela examines the hologram and hologram techniques beyond its well-known commercial application and how this means of expression is embodied and translated into the physical space.

https://depoo.space/

Altered Voices

Datum:
Locatie: DOZA gallery
In samenwerking met: CBK Rotterdam and National Culture Fund (NFC)

“Altered Voices” is a group show which revolves around the theme of damnatio memoriae – the ultimate act of “forgetting” in relation to collective memory. The artists in this exhibition explore instances of personal and historical memory through a diverse range of media that includes installations, video, sculpture, soundscapes, photographs and performance.

TERRY

Datum:
Locatie: Delfshaven
In samenwerking met: Maurice Suitela

The window installation honors Terry's gay film club — a secret place which existed in the '80s at the same location, which now functions as a shared studio space known as Mrs. BOK in Rotterdam. Despite finding a price list offering various items for sale — from soft drinks and snacks to flavored condoms, we barely knew anything about the gay film club's existence. The short film is composed of film excerpts and other visual materials dating back from the '80s to the present.

TENT Online Cinema-Der Bien und der Garten

Datum:
Locatie: Online Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: TENT Cinema
https://vimeo.com/678042044

I got here floating on a tin can

Datum:
Locatie: Rosa Stern Space
In samenwerking met: City of Munich Department Art and Culture

The double group exhibition named „I got here floating in a tin can“ was staged both in Sofia and Munich. The first chapter was at Æther Art Space, during Sofia Art Week's fourth edition „Future Oracles“, showing works by the team members of Rosa Stern Space. Accordingly the team of Æther Art Space will be guests in Munich with a group exhibition and a performance program presented the positions and concepts that shape the art space.

http://rosastern.space/aether-art-space-rosa-stern-space

Der Bien und der Garten

Datum:
In samenwerking met: Amy Pickles and Bérénice Staiger

The film "Der Bien und der Garten" follows the artist and beekeeper Bérénice Staiger, whose art and apiarist practices intertwine systems of care and attention. The camera oscillates between the choreographies of Bérénice, and fellow beekeeper Sophie Pauwels – observing, inspecting, maintaining, harvesting, almost as a self-reflection, these gestures also mimicking the actions of the bees in the hive.

https://vimeo.com/678042044

The Pric/ze is right – Next Balkan: Bulgarian Contemporary Art

Datum:
Locatie: Ostavinska galerija
In samenwerking met: National Culture Fund Bulgaria

Showing the film “Earth Rebels” - anthropological and artistic research into the indigenous Tzotzil carnival in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico combined with the sacral rituals of kukeri in and Shiroka Laka, Rhodope mountains, Bulgaria. What might be the commonalities between those two cultures dating back before the Spanish and Ottoman invasions?

Digital Aesthetics

Datum:
Locatie: +359Gallery

Digital Aesthetics group exhibition together with Dagmar Schürrer and Tor Jørgen van Eijk, curated by Irina Batkova. For the occasion of the exhibition, I revisited and adapted the work Cold Storage (2015) following the unconventional special properties of the former water tower now currently a gallery space.

https://plus359gallery.com/en/2019/10/16/digital-aesthetics/

Digital Art Festival | Article17

Datum:
Locatie: Goethe-Institut

shown in a group exhibition as three channel screen installation

https://www.2019.da-fest.bg/en/da-fest/left-menu/exhibitions/mihaela-lakova.html

Past-Present Utopian dream for a nu(un)clear future

Datum:
Locatie: Æther Sofia
In samenwerking met: Gaudenz B. Ruf Award

In Past-Present: Utopian dream for a nu(un)clear future, a solo exhibition at Æther, Michaela Lakova is showing a body of works related to the past and future of nuclear energy. Michaela's works artistically investigate issues of historical relevance in Chernobyl where the remnants of nuclear energetics, human activity and memories of the biggest nuclear disaster are still present and in parallel to the small Danube town of Belene where the desire for developing nuclear energy remains strong.

http://ruf-award.org/gaudenz-b-ruf/beneficiaries/bp_221/

Article17

Datum:
Locatie: Online
In samenwerking met: x-tepmorary

Online residency organized by Marenka Krasomil. Over a span of a month the artist is invited to propose ideas, develop a concept, open up a process while manipulating a web page. ​Published article by Curating the Contemporary: Please Play with Glitches in the System: Javier Lloret and Michaela Lakova on x-temporary.org

https://x-temporary.org/

Memories of Slavutych

Datum:
Locatie: International Festival of Film and Urbanism “86”
In samenwerking met: International Festival of Film and Urbanism “86” and METASITU

As part of its Urban Program, the International Festival of Film and Urbanism “86” had selected nine urbanists, architects and artists via an Open Call to spend four weeks in the town of Slavutych (Ukraine). During their stay, residents reflected on the historical development, as well as potential futures of the 14 districts that make up the city.The residency was curated by METASITU, directors of the Urban Program of the 5th Festival of Film and Urbanism “86”.

http://www.86.org.ua/en/

A manuscript of erasure

Datum:
Locatie: the fridge
In samenwerking met: Gaudenz B. Ruf Award

video installation, text extracts by Audrey Samson and voice over by Patrícia Chaves

Allow me to forget

Datum:
Locatie: Intercambiador ACART project space
In samenwerking met: CBK Rotterdam

group show at Quinta del Sordo and artist talk at Medialab-Prado, Madrid

Art Meets Radical Openness (AMRO)

Datum:
Locatie: Kunstraum gallery
In samenwerking met: Art Meets Radical Openness and Gaudenz B. Ruf Award

AMRO is a biennial festival dedicated to art, hacktivism and Open Culture. I was invited to take part in the group exhibition at Kunstraum gallery with my interactive installation Delete?No, Wait!Rewind and the publication The Blue Print.

https://www.radical-openness.org/en/archive

Radical Networks

Datum:
Locatie: Radical Networks, Polytechnic School of Engineering, New York University
In samenwerking met: Eyebeam and Stimuleringsfonds

a workshop and presentation of bibliotecha project together with André Castro and Lucia Dossin https://radicalnetworks.org/

https://bibliotecha.info/

What remains – Strategies of saving and deleting

Datum:
Locatie: esc media art laboratory
In samenwerking met: CBK Rotterdam and Kulturamt der Stadt Graz

What remains – strategies of saving and deleting — a group exhibition together with Linda Kronman & Andreas Zingerle (KAIRUS), Fränk Zimmer and Marloes de Valk.

https://esc.mur.at/en/projekt/what-remains

Piksel festival

Datum:
Locatie: Lydgallerit
In samenwerking met: Piksel festival

group show

https://14.piksel.no/2014/10/26/delno-waitrew

Unlinked

Datum:
Locatie: TENT gallery
In samenwerking met: Piet Zwart Institute & TENT

part of the graduation show "Unlinked" - Piet Zwart Institute MA program in Media Design and Communication

https://www.tentrotterdam.nl/en/tentoonstelling/20140612_mdcpzi/
Deze kunstenaar heeft nog geen toekenningen.