Igor Simic – FEEEEELINGS

We proudly present the first solo exhibition with Serbian-American artist Igor Simic. The artist explores a wide range of themes—politics, climate change, and the transformation of our world through digitalization—in a serious yet simultaneously ironic way through storytelling. Some stories are told as video, others as computer games or songs. Together, they form a grand narrative about the 21st century, presented in this exhibition through two video works with sound, three neon works, two video games, one large-format drawing, and a multitude of A4-sized drawings.

Personal emotions and global events are combined by Igor Simic into what he calls a globalized “saudade”—a nostalgic, equally strong and indeterminate longing for something that usually cannot be put into words. Rather than focusing on a single emotion, Simic examines how our perception of an increasingly complex world is guided by a multitude of contradictory feelings. In his works, he takes these emotions seriously while simultaneously breaking them ironically.

The exhibition title FEEEEELINGS, with five letters “E,” exemplifies this approach, as do the three neon works illuminating the gallery in bright pink. WELTSCHMERZ lies on the floor, supported by two low pylons made of raw concrete rubble. On the wall, an abstracted heart emoji “<3” glows. Above the entrance, the neon work MINISTRY OF LONELINESS proclaims its message—though only the letters “L O L” remain illuminated in the word “Loneliness.” In the UK, a Ministry of Loneliness has existed since 2018, created to counteract the growing isolation of elderly people. Simic adopts this concept as emblematic of our time, while simultaneously allowing himself the ironic joke of shortening “Loneliness” to “LOL”—laughing out loud.

The presentation of the neon works gives the impression that they are remnants of a lost civilization. This sense of ruin and reference continues in the two video games featured in the exhibition, Highwater and The CUB. In these games, words found in the exhibition appear as large-format neon signs glowing in bright pink on the architectural ruins of a world literally submerged by water—messages from, and commentaries on, a past that is both distant and near.

The two videos premiering in Berlin—Don’t Be Fake and Late Night Weltschmerz—revolve around the theme of loss, again treated with irony and linked to questions of fact versus fiction. Songs are performed in the guise of a news broadcast or a late-night talk show. Their lyrics appeal to the viewer’s emotions while being mirrored in the performers’ behavior. In Don’t Be Fake, the simulation of reality is formally broken over the course of the video: the image frame expands, and the illusion of a perfect news broadcast gives way to a behind-the-scenes view. What is real, and what is fake?

The exhibition is rounded out by a large-format drawing that once again illustrates the exhibition’s central themes and the interconnections between Simic’s works. The drawn word “FEEEEELINGS” quotes his video games, where the same word appears as a giant neon sign half submerged in water at the precise moment a highly emotional song is playing. Once again, big, serious emotions are evoked—and once again, they are ironically broken. The drawing shows the word in three-dimensional, block-like letters partially overgrown by vegetation.

A larger group of drawings on coloured A4 sheets—both preparatory sketches and supplementary depictions of keywords and scenes from Simic’s universe—completes the exhibition. In the video work Instant but distant, a selection of these A4 sheets complements and comments on both the lyrics and the music of a nearly 15-minute song.

Igor Simic (born 1988 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia) is a multi-award-winning visual artist, filmmaker, and game designer. He holds a BA in Film Studies and Philosophy from Columbia University, New York. His work has been shown internationally, including at the B3 Biennale of the Moving Image in Frankfurt (2015, 2017), where he received the award for Best Video Game in 2021. He won the 1st Prize Discovery Award at Loop Barcelona (2016) and participated in the Berlinale Talents program in 2014 and 2022, the latter as a tutor. His work has been shown at institutions and festivals including Kunsthalle Mainz, Ars Electronica (Linz), Manifesta 14 (Pristina), Tribeca Film Festival, Palazzo Strozzi (Florence), and the Athens Digital Arts Festival. Simic lives in Belgrade, where he runs demagog studio, creating video games. His game Highwater has been available on Netflix since March 2023.