Artists in Dialog: Paola Yacoub

Paola Yacoub's Presentation is the first of Art Laboratory Berlin's new series of artists talks, presentations, performances and events:
Artists in Dialog

Paola Yacoub will present a running thread through various works, mainly photographs and montages, produced in different geographical areas ranging from Southern Lebanon to Berlin via Sweden and China.The common point is skepticism as it was introduced in visual arts in the U.S.A. at the beginning of the 20th century.

In a fast food restaurant 'Beautifull Heart' in Shenzhen, China, a flat screen continuously transmits news and entertainment channels. Information becomes like decoration. One looks at the screen only from time to time, often not at all, and rarely with attention. We do not know if we agree on postures in front of the screen and on what we see.

A dialogical encounter between two video clips of the same screen in the same fast food restaurant but at different moments were made by Paola Yacoub and by Yao Zhiyan.These plasma screens in fast food restaurants and cafés show the social modality of a contemporary gaze.

Paola Yacoub is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and currently a PHD candidate in visual arts at Goldsmith's college, London. Among other venues she has exhibited in the 2002 Sao Paulo Biennale, the 2003 Venice Biennale and was part of the DAAD artists program in 2004/2005 in collaboration with Michel Lasserre. She lives and works in Berlin.