Exhibition: Diminishing Returns – Sara Bezovšek, Matteo Antoniazzi, Melanie Kasal

Diminishing Returns – Sara Bezovšek, Matteo Antoniazzi, Melanie Kasal, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024

We and our bodies, ideas, imaginations, and desires are consumed, processed, and monetized every day, just as we consume ourselves.
Questioning the concept of visual excess in times of global crises requires an expanded understanding of research fields that bridge multiple contexts: How do we visually confront – and find ourselves confronted by – the contemporary phenomena of (over-)production and (hyper-)consumption? How can we filter out information “signals” from an excess of data “noise”? How do narratives of excess interact with imaginaries of renouncement, sacrifice, and resistance? How do they shape the way we perceive ourselves and how we live together as societies?
The exhibition Diminishing Returns explores these questions, proposing counter-narratives and performative activities that challenge stereotypical notions of excess and its impacts. The works critically examine the personal, cultural, and social implications of excess from diverse perspectives. They contribute to dialogue by creating spaces for reflection, analyzing the role and use of images in our visual landscape, and engaging visitors through formats that directly challenge them.

Diminishing Returns – Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2021, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024

Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2021
Live projected web project, s-n-d.si

In an era marked by doomscrolling, conspiracy theories, climate change anxiety, and political tensions, Sara Bezovšek’s interactive website, SND, invites visitors to explore (pop) cultural representations of the current and possible future states of our planet. The artist’s curated online content forms complex and visually rich narratives reminiscent of Hollywood blockbusters. The site features a plethora of visual material from the internet, including short videos, memes, photographs, gifs, emoticons, and links, allowing visitors to explore topics and choose their own paths, leading to various potential futures for humanity. Bezovšek combines these with her own works, creating a layered and visually challenging array of narratives.
SND is an ongoing project currently comprising seven subsites: You Are Here, Human Extinction, False Utopia, Overpopulation, Evacuate Earth, Nuclear Winter, and Through the Wormhole.

Diminishing Returns – Matteo Antoniazzi, This Video, 2023, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024

Matteo Antoniazzi, This Video, 2023, 5′

This video can be interpreted as a lullaby, a nursery rhyme, and a curse. The work, a 5-minute looping animation, was created using CGI animation. Often embracing the excess inherent in software used for visual effects, the artist employs performance capture techniques and overflowing simulations to explore the cavity, the inner space of the polygonal models that were bought, generated, and used in the work.
Set against a monotonous vocal track, consisting of a few continuously repeating words, the seamless sequence of images presents heterogeneous parts of a larger body. In line with the vocal mantra, the work aims to engage with and transplant itself into those subjected to viewing.

Diminishing Returns – Melanie Kasal, Der Spiegel (The Mirror), 2024,
Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024

Melanie Kasal, Der Spiegel (The Mirror), 2024
Videos with various lengths, A4 pencil drawings

Derealization is altered perception of the external world, making it seem unreal, as if viewed from afar or through a glass pane, fog, or curtains. The feeling varies each time.
During especially intense episodes of derealization, the artist sat in front of a mirror, positioned a video camera in front of it, looked at herself, and drew what she observed. She thought: If I move and my reflection moves, then it must be me.

Diminishing Returns – Melanie Kasal, Der Spiegel (The Mirror), 2024, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024, photo by Fanni Fazekas

Diminishing Returns – Sara Bezovšek, SND, 2021, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024, photo by Fanni Fazekas

Diminishing Returns – Matteo Antoniazzi, This Video, 2023, Exhibition by Foto Forum, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy), 2024, photo by Fanni Fazekas