A growing number of people today report feeling anxious than ever before. Some theorists, Renata Salecl and other theorists, speak about “anxiety epidemic” or “anxious society”. How shall we deal with the widespread anxiety, which somewhat became a new norm? The talk Anxiety Epidemic: Precarious Living Conditions, Therapeutic Discourse and Living in an Anxious Society will introduction into the term ”anxious society” and into the practice of Institute of Anxiety, Feminist Art Institution and Zero Wage Movement as well as Barbora Kleinhamplová’s own artistic practice.
Barbora Kleinhamplová is an artist living and working in Prague. Kleinhamplová’s work is rooted in the relationship of human existence and the contemporary politics and economy of institutions. She comments on different layers of society, using associations and metaphors. For recent past, it has been her overarching aim to pose questions as: What is a society? How it works, what are its constitutive elements? What are its illnesses, its emotions, its future or a situation of an individual in the middle of it? Recently she has been taking advantage of a strategy what we might call constructed or staged situation where the script is often derived from an existing format of group interaction (therapy, coaching session etc.). Performative dimension of some of her projects try to accent the symbolic role of the body politics in the economic and power system. Kleinhamplová’s work has been exhibited widely in the Czech Republic as well as internationally – including SAVVY Contemporary, KIBLA Portal, Paul Ramsay Galleries, Triennial of Contemporary Art U3, Gwangju Biennale, New Museum, Astrup Farnley Museet, Jakarta Biennale.
