Marge Monko. Dear D

Marge Monko
Dear D, 2015
Single chanel video, colour, sound, 8΄ 10΄΄
Courtesy of the artist

Dear D explores contemporary ways of declaring one’s love. It was recorded entirely on a computer screen, and narrates the reluctant process of writing a love letter, interrupted by browsing online and switching between tabs, windows and image files. The text includes several references, from the writings of writers such as Chris Kraus and Siri Hustvedt, to sociological research by Eva Illouz on love and the Beatles’ song Something, a love song written for Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s first wife. The constant interruptions relativise the concept of the exclusive object of love, a concept which has always been tied to love in Western culture, while at the same time demonstrating the intertextual fragmentation of our emotional life on the internet. In the computer it’s easier to write and erase, language use is more self-conscious and her relation with the expression of love desire changes.

Drawing on psychoanalysis, feminism and theories of visual culture, Marge Monko uses photography, video and installation to explore historical as well as current events. Recently, her work has also investigated the discourses of romance and its implications in advertising, commercial displays and the internet.

Biography

Marge Monko lives and works in Tallinn, EE. She studied in the Estonian Academy of Arts and in HISK in Ghent, BE. She currently teaches in the Photography Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Monko has had solo exhibitions in Cosar HMT, Düsseldorf, Germany, Folkwang Museum (Essen, DE, 2019) and in mumok (Museum of Modern Art; Vienna, AT, 2013). She has also shown her work at P74 Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2022), Maternar, MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico (2021), Riga Biennial of Contemporary Art (LV, 2018), Manifesta 9 (Genk, BE, 2012), ParaSite (HK),

Lenbachhaus (Munich, DE), FOMU (Foto Museum; Antwerp, BE), Museum of Art in Łódz (PL), The Glucksman Gallery (Cork, IE), CCA Glasgow (UK) and Bétonsalon, Paris (FR). Her works are in various collections including the Estonian Art Museum (EE), the FRAC Lorrain (FR) and the mumok (Vienna, AT).

https://www.margemonko.com/

 

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