Wouters Gallery, in collaboration with Rectangle, is pleased to unveil “Guardians,” a group exhibition by net.art pioneers Auriea Harvey, Joan Heemskerk, JODI, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Julia Scher. This exhibition explores the multiple dualities and interpretations of guardianship, from historical mythological figures to contemporary societal and corporate control. It highlights how this concept transcends physical boundaries to become a pervasive force in our digital lives, shaping our identities in a world increasingly determined by algorithms.

April 24 – June 1, 2024

Opening Wednesday 24 April 24, 2024, 5–8pm

GUARDIANS

a joint project of Wouters Gallery | Rectangle, Brussels.

AURIEA HARVEY

JOAN HEEMSKERK

JODI

LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON

JULIA SCHER

'In the Iliad, Homer describes Aegis as a surface of gold like scaly snake-skin that sometimes appears with serpents, and others, with the Gorgon herself. It is often associated with the Greek goddess Athena, who wears it for protection either as a shield or an animal skin. The Aegis can unleash the roar of ten thousand dragons, or create powerful windstorms and thunders. It offers protection like an armour, and exerts control as fear. Aegis is a physical and magical object whose power lies in its immaterial force to coerce.

The modern concept of aegis means to do something under the protection of a strong force. The mean- ing is somewhere in between control or conditioning; sponsorship or guidance. Today, aegis gives its name to warfare such as Aegis Combat System, also to a private military and security company in the UK, or to an experiment at CERN about antimatter. Aegis has come to signify both control and protection.

Like any myth, Aegis is perceived as less than science, but as an untrue or unworthy force. Its opposite, logos, represents the truth. Regardless of its sciencelessness, a myth contains messages and metaphoric truths about how to live, and provides a worldview that carries on a perspective that we use to navigate the world. Scientific and technical thinking is not as far removed as we think: the development of a technology is not universal but situated. The philosopher Yuk Hui explains it as cosmotechnics, as a way to refer to the ways in which technics emerges under specific cosmological conditions. For him, there is no binary opposition between myth and science, only a progression between the two.

We understand the digital as combination of devices, practices and experiences. It appears as an invisible form of control, an encrypted surveillance mechanism that we understand little and trust much. It works like a double-edged sword, fluid and immaterial, exerting control, monitoring us; and, at the same time, protecting us, guiding us through this second life we now have to navigate. It is a technics.

And, like any other, it is also rooted in a particular cosmological vision, and has also developed its own myths. Myth and science are intertwined.

If we were to reconstruct the Aegis for the digital realm, one would need to think again about today’s forms of protection and control. But the myth of protection is gendered in that it positions men as the defenders and guardians of women’s physical well-being and security. It associates security and con- trol with masculinity, and vulnerability and dependence with femininity. In this exhibition, the artists question the legitimacy and acceptability of a model of protection that has lost its value, especially when it comes to the digital sphere.

Under the Aegis, they speculate on the duality of the guardianship, looking into the progressive move- ment between myth and science. The artworks in the exhibition become tangible experiences that reflect on how digital technologies are immaterial forces that are coercive. In this way, the artists rewrite the myth of guardianship in digital terms, reclaiming and reappropriating the Aegis that has always been theirs.'

Aegis

Exhibition text by Barbara Cueto (writer, online curator for LAS - Art Foundation in Berlin)