Our MyExhibition entitled ‘Slowing down’ is a duo show of Veronika Szendrő and the ‘we are working on a big plan’ collective. The displayed artworks analyze the passing of time and its psychological impact on people from various perspectives. While the collective, Anna Rubi and Eirini Sourgiadaki focus on the unbearable slowness of time when waiting and being lonely, Szendrő’s videos examine how people try to reach the desired state of relaxation. In spite of the differences between the approaches all the artworks present methods that people, driven by diverse motivations, use to wind down alone.

Szendrő’s video series entitled ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ includes seven videos, each of them linking a religious theme, one of the deadly sins, with the function ASMR videos have in their viewers’ life. ASMR videos are to stimulate the brain causing sensual pleasure. Slow movement, slow and quiet whispering are typical devices with which these videos calm their viewers down. They are to be experienced with high concentration, alone in intimate atmosphere, similarly to how prayers are performed. 

The ‘we are working on a big plan’ collective’s videos are a trilogy entitled ‘We Have All the Time in the World’. The narrative of each video is about waiting and unfolds very slowly, with tiny details telling the story. Therefore, the videos expect the viewer to use a very novel way of concentration and triggers the feeling of discomfort due to the unusual length of a video lacking major actions.

All the six videos revolve around how people experience time. The main device of each piece is the lengthening of pause, which creates strikingly different effects on the viewer of the collective’s trilogy and on that of Szendrő’s videos from the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, one leads to discomfort, while the latter establishes tranquil vibe. All of them, however, experiment with the areas out of one’s comfort zone, provoke the reinterpretation of the normal pace of life.