Multiple Realities and the question of control in the past and present

Art is always in conversation with the present. The best exhibits, especially those foregrounded in history, help contextualize the specific moment we find ourselves in. 

So it is at Vancouver Art Gallery’s (VAG) Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s, an expansive look at how lesser-known artists in Central European countries pushed forward political art under oppressive authoritarianism.

The artists chosen by the curator feel distinct, and unique, occupying their own space and viewpoint in challenging times, from Slovakia/Czechoslovakian artist Július Kollerr’s Stockholm Ping-Pong Cultural Situation where people became the art by participating in games, to the mathematical cybernetic pictures and paintings of Romanian artist Sherban Epuré. 

There is no singular style to the artists selected by the museum, beyond exploring expression within repression. Today, where images are mediated on social media, where the algorithms artificially reflect and shape our interests, the unique approach of each artist feels fresh and stimulating. No algorithm could’ve chosen these. As the algorithms grind down uniqueness into a universally appealing format, the artists in distinct places, locales and countries each took a unique approach, finding different ways to express themselves, unmediated by any sort of overarching algorithm.

Ion Grigorescu, a Romanian artist, took photographs of crowds voting in pre-determined parliamentary elections, secretly capturing photos of both police and voters, illustrating the “anatomy of a political spectacle” that played out in his home and across the Iron Curtain. Politics and voting took place, but it was fake and purely for theatre. 

The idea of spectacle, an impossible-to-ignore theatre, is all around us today But rather than only politics, it’s the spectacle of our online world, with meticulously designed Instagram images, and contrived TikTok videos, the format mediated by algorithm owners like Elon Musk rather than Grigorescu’s Romanian dictator like Nicolae Ceaușescu.

I can’t help but think of the online trend of podcast conversations. Some videos may look real, an authentic conversation between two people, but is not a podcast, but a scripted, pre-made ad from a company trying to sell you something. It’s all fake with a veneer of truth, but instead of Grigorescu’s photograph of a political spectacle, it’s an online spectacle of authenticity designed to make you buy. It’s as real as Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu’s victory with 97 per cent of the vote. 

As VAG’s description explains “Multiple Realities sheds light on ways that artists refused, circumvented, eluded and subverted official systems.” The exhibit’s section on mail art, circulated by the postal service “expanded and democratized the marking and distribution of art.” Ingenious methods to prevent monitoring, such as Hungarian artist Endre Tót sending arm from different cities and countries to avoid detection, showcase the level of creativity artists were forced to embrace.

The click of a button to publish art online, in some ways, robs us as viewers of the potential for different creative artistic ventures. The exhibitor's decision to showcase the medium of art, such as the postal service, in conjunction with the art itself, left me questioning what sort of art we’re missing in our present moment. In Canada we may live in a free society, but are we truly free if the vast majority of “art” or, shudder, content, we consume is specifically made to be viewed by endlessly scrolling on our phones?

Multiple Realities can of course be enjoyed without considering the context today. But it succeeds especially when we view it by acknowledging our present world, not only with the spectre of control through political authoritarianism rising around the world but with algorithms and apps that imperceptibly, continuously and unfortunately, disproportionately shape our lives.