NEOZOON: FragMANts

A "neozoon" is the term used to describe an animal that, through conscious or unconscious direct or indirect help from humans, has been introduced into areas where it did not originally occur. The artist duo NEOZOON is constantly discovering new, sometimes disturbing creatures on the web - including in the video FragMANts. The video is a collage of YouTube videos in which people present their latest consumer goods: Handbags, keyboards, cell phones, shampoos. The protagonists' heads, bodies and legs are composed of different sources. We watch the characters unboxing and listen to the sounds they produce with the help of these new objects (a phenomenon called ASMR - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). However, the initially pleasant rhythmic collage soon turns into a pounding, and laptops are crushed, down jackets and T-shirts are torn, and technology is destroyed. Unpleasant and also frightening is man's lust for destruction, which becomes visible in this video. (Inke Arns)

NEOZOON is a collective of artists founded in 2009 in Berlin and Paris. The group's works are based on the principle of collage and explore sociological questions dealing with speciesism in the Capitolocene. In their video works, the de- and recontextualization of found footage ⁄ YouTube footage is a recurring work element. NEOZOON's works have been shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Kunstwerke Berlin, among others, and screened at national and international film festivals in Oberhausen, Rotterdam, and New York. NEOZOON is a member of the Gallery Climate Coalition and supports the work of Artists4Future.