T H E B R E E D E R

The Breeder Projects presents the latest Jenny Marketou project:

Flying Spy Potatoes

Jenny Marketou has presented her work extensively in Museums and exhibitions worldwide. Recent shows include the exhibition "Blood and Honey" at the Essl foundation (Austria), curated by Harald Szeeman.

The central theme of the exhibition at The Breeder Projects is the platform where the artist is using and misusing models and tools of information intelligence and surveillance technologies such as internet, tracking systems, wireless spy cams, cctv in order to create the physical conditions which make the above systems and processes transparent to the audience.

Marketou, through a period of time attempts to involve the viewer in her world which reveals the human desire to use new technologies to create forms of conviviality as a mean of communication, social networks and collective production.

The exhibition consists of two sections. An installation of Mixer (2003) and Orbiter (2003) hybridised sculptures on the ground floor of the gallery and "The System Space".

MIXER is a display, modelled after surveillance satellites, made out of domestic materials such as wood and plastic which is connected to a variety of audio-visual inputs such as surveillance cameras, dvd players and 3 tv screens. The tv screens feature < Flying Spy Potatoes> series, digital recordings with a specially made wireless spy-cam mounted on a helium balloon which Marketou was holding at the end of a 30feet tether while she was walking in high security public spaces in NYC which were declared as hard targets against terrorism.

ORBITER is a hybrid sculptural structure also inspired by the reconnaissance military technology and consists of a silver 17 feet (210 cm) diameter helioum balloon which floats in the middle of the gallery. The balloon is attached to a tv monitor on the floor of the gallery, which displays the artists pre-recorded public interventions, holding the spy balloon, in three major portals of high security in NYC, such as Grand Central Station, and W.F.C.

"The System Space", as the artist named the basement area, which she transformed as an open study environment – a free matrix of information- where the viewer can find information and materials about the process and the research the artist has made. "The System Space" will also host screenings and discussions with the public throughout the duration of the show. One of these events will be a session with a vocal instructor who will teach Marketou and the audience to sing the eighties pop hit "99 red balloons" by Nena. Other events will include shared discussions, games, performances, and talks.