re.riddle

MICHAIL MICHAILOV: SELF-BRAINWASHING

CO-PRESENTED BY MINNESOTA STREET PROJECT FOUNDATION AND RE.RIDDLE 

1201 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
January 17 - February 8, 2025 

Michail Michailov: Self-Brainwashing
U.S. Premiere Co-Presented by Minnesota Street Project Foundation and re.riddle

1201 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
January 17 - February 8, 2025 
Multiple Performance Dates (see below for ticket dates)

re.riddle and Minnesota Street Project Foundation are proud to present the U.S. premiere of Self-Brainwashing, an immersive performance piece by acclaimed artist Michail Michailov. Originally programmed for the Bulgarian Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2022, this captivating work will be performed on several dates from January 17 - February 8, 2025 as part of SF Art Week.
 
Self-Brainwashing is an installation and performance that explores the shape and density of realities and the (de-)programming of the self through playful interventions. Inspired by ‘90s foam parties, Self-Brainwashing explores how whimsy, irreverence, and play might be effective stratagems to detangle and dissolve societal and psychological indoctrination and mental conditioning.

Participants are invited to wear white protective suits as they become gradually enveloped in ethereal, white foam. The experience creates a compelling duality of sensation—simultaneously delightful and disorienting—as participants find their senses both awakened and challenged by the surrounding foam environment. Foam is light and airy, evoking a sense of buoyancy and softness, as well as a voluminous density, which can obscure vision and sound by way of complete envelopment and engulfment. As an ephemeral material that is neither liquid nor gas, but a combination of the two, foam becomes a symbolic substance that questions the fluidity and possibility of manipulating one’s environment, and self, at will. Further thickening the experience, Michailov will collaborate with sound artists to create and play original compositions during the performance.  

The spatial dynamics of Michailov's interactive work invite us to alter our own perception, (mis- and self-perception), and to go down a rabbit hole of existential inquiry: Where do I begin? Where do I end? Where do I come from and where am I going? Do I exist in the absence of my fellow human beings? How responsible am I to my surroundings? These questions become increasingly urgent in the age of AI, when human and computer interfaces are nearing the event horizon of singularity. Michailov describes the concept of Self-Brainwashing in computational terms, “like a hard drive deleting itself.” 

Through a choreography of irreverent materiality and social constructions, Self-Brainwashing aims to create an intuitive yet mindful arena of wonder and play, where everyone can lose, or momentarily delete, the “self” whilst also finding themselves somewhere in the process. 

Minnesota Street Project Foundation
1201 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
January 17 - February 8, 2025 

Opening: Friday, January 17 
Multiple Performance Dates (January 17 - February 8):

Thursdays & Fridays: 

• 5 p.m. doors open

• 6:30 p.m.  performance start

Saturdays: 

• 2 p.m. doors open

• 3:30 p.m. performance start

*This is a ticketed event with limited capacity

This work was formerly presented as part of Michailov's solo exhibition "THERE YOU ARE," originally curated by Irina Batkova for the Bulgarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2022.

Michail Michailov was born in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria and currently lives and works in Vienna and Paris. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Veliko Tarnovo (1999-2004) and Art History at the University of Vienna (2002-2007). From 2006-2009 Michailov worked in cooperation with the artist group Gelitin. In 2007, he took part in the summer academy “Situation and Spectacle” at the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (lecturer: Cerith Wyn Evans). In addition to several residencies and awards, Michailov received the Drawing Now Paris Art Award (2018). In 2022 Michailov represented Bulgaria at the 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. He is currently an artist in residence at ISCP, NY. Michailov has had solo exhibitions at Belvedere Museum in Vienna (2024); re.riddle gallery in San Francisco (2024); Kunstraum Lakeside in Klagenfurt (2023); Galerie Viktor Bucher in Vienna (2023); +359 Gallery in Sofia (2021); Drawing Lab Paris (2019); Kunsthalle Exnergasse (2019); Sotheby's Vienna (2016). Michailov's works are in the various permanent collections including the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.

About Minnesota Street Project Foundation

Minnesota Street Project Foundation provides critical access to the space and tools necessary for artists, technicians, and curators to create. We collaborate broadly and support unparalleled opportunities for the presentation of contemporary art, fostering discourse, expanding access, and engaging the community at large. Working in community, the Foundation aims to strengthen Bay Area arts enterprise by building and sustaining a robust support infrastructure. Founded in 2019, Minnesota Street Project Foundation is a non-profit organization, which operates alongside Minnesota Street Project and Minnesota Street Project Art Services and is part of a growing contemporary arts campus located in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. 

re.riddle was founded in 2017 by art historian and curator Candace Huey. The art gallery showcases international contemporary artists through socially engaging and multidisciplinary programming. Our mission is to contribute to the discourse on contemporary art in thought provoking and playfully subversive ways. Via new modes of production, reception and consumption, re.riddle places an emphasis on the whimsical with hope that art continues to arouse curiosity and promote an awareness of its profound impact on our daily surroundings and lives.