CHRISTELLE OYIRI. AN EYE FOR AN “I”

Choufs (chouf, meaning “see” or “look” in Arabic) stay at their posts, always on the alert. These discreet figures warn drug dealers immediately while remaining untraceable themselves.

In our present-day lives, it seems impossible to avoid being seen, observed, or analyzed. Cameras and cookies are watching every move, following each action, emotion, and thought. So how is freedom possible despite this? How can we feel free and think freely? How is it to oscillate between secrecy and having your sense of self located in the digital? Could the chouf be a model, a keystone of countersurveillance?

Christelle Oyiri (b. 1992), the winner of the 2024 PONTOPREIS MMK, has created a new immersive work for her solo exhibition at ZOLLAMT MMK. The PONTOPREIS MMK is awarded every two years by the Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung in cooperation with the MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST.