Out of Office. IMPAKT Centre for Media Culture
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Group exhibition. Utrecht, NL, 10.02—30.04.2023
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Sam Meech, Adrian Melis, Noa Marthe Prins, Mario Santamaría, Tytus Szabelski, Pilvi Takala, Total Refusal, Alina Lupu, 996.icu
Our schedules are packed. We define ourselves by our work. And we are constantly exhausted. The excesses of today’s technology-driven work culture are familiar to everyone—efficiency has become the norm, and permanent availability a given. From 10 February to 30 April 2023, the IMPAKT exhibition Out of Office presents a collection of artistic responses that reveal, rethink, and reject the constant drive toward exploitative productivity. How can we carve out space to catch our breath?
Technological advances did not create a future that frees humans from labour after all. Instead, we see management algorithms optimising efficiency without concern for the people doing the work. Apps and platforms push us to become the “best” (read: most productive) version of ourselves. In our current neoliberal society, we are constantly either working, thinking about work, or feeling guilty for not working. The title Out of Office will be familiar from those auto-reply emails announcing someone’s unavailability—but it also points to how work follows us wherever we go.
The pandemic accentuated existing problems in the labour market and opened the eyes of many. People began to reconsider their priorities in life and work, and new terms like “the great resignation” and “quiet quitting” have since become common.
The artists in the exhibition reflect on their own positions and the current conditions of the workplace. They question standard practices and explore the subversive potential of conventions such as the auto-reply, the CV, and the eight-hour workday. Jobs require us to perform—not only in the sense of carrying out tasks but also in the sense of acting. Building on this inherent performativity of labour, Out of Office explores gestures of critique and resistance. In the modern workplace, doing nothing, not showing up, or engaging in mutual support can become acts of defiance against a system that prizes profit, efficiency, and optimisation above all else. How can such resistance foster collective action and solidarity?