"So we've all become tourists and that's why our office is Starbucks."
 
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On May 15, the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Amalia Ulman (1989 AR) opens at Showroom MAMA. Her International House of Cozy exhibition includes a film especially produced for MAMA in which she takes her research into the boundaries of authenticity and consumerism to its extreme. The title also refers to a feeling of coziness and ‘home’ as marketed through lifestyle blogs and websites such as Airbnb or pinterest.

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Amalia Ulman was born in 1989 in Argentina and raised in Spain. She lives alternately in Los Angeles, London, New York, and Gijón and has been described as a ‘transatlantic expat’. Living and working in so many different places around the world, she observes a worldwide globalised style that evokes a homely feeling. This globalisation leads to a society of equalisation and uniformity in which the non-identical is suppressed.

“So we’ve all become tourists and that’s why our office is Starbucks.”

The notions of beauty and loveliness are central to Ulman’s practice. Reoccurring in her visual imagery are flowers, butterflies, hearts, and latte art, but also plastic surgery and the agony that precedes such searches for beauty and cuteness. In a world where life has become a commodity, Ulman takes the additional step to expose the obscenities of contemporary marketing. For the artwork presented at MAMA, she filmed a pornographic adaption of a lifestyle infomercial. The film will be shown in an installation specially made for MAMA.

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Amalia Ulman’s solo exhibition is part of MAMA’s Internet Aware programme, which focuses on online and offline art and culture, where objects and images cannot be understood without having knowledge of the systems, symbols, and possibilities created and offered by the Internet. ‘International House of Cozy’ also falls under MAMA’s Eyes Wide Open programme, which examines how the work of artists is part of, and offers, an alternative view on reality.

Curated by Marloes de Vries with contributions from Amalia Ulman.

About HOME

HOME is the leitmotiv by which we encourage conversation about conceptions regarding belonging, representation and identification. HOME is a fundament, the place you return to and anchorpoint for the journey onward. HOME (offline as well as online) is the start of feeling connect to others. Under the name HOME we also present exhibitions in the showroom of MAMA. In collaboration with young makers we express interpretations about HOME | IN REAL LIFE | NETWORKS.

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