NECRONOMICS, LINCOLNS FUNERAL, DATA DEATH

Lecture performance in the framework of our exhibition IMMORTALITY FOR ALL.

The Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles has been at the forefront of the funerary business for the past 100 years. Its first manager Hubert Eaton was an art collector and attracted many celebrities to be buried in his theme-park-like cemetery as a business strategy (among them Michael Jackson and Walt Disney).

Since the civil war embalming has defined the US context of the death care industry. Embalming is a practice which preserves a body short term for especially orchestrated viewings, that multi-national corporations have tried to introduce into a European market in the 1990s but failed.

The election campaigns to the US presidency 2016 have resurrected political formats that were long thought dead. They have used an unprecedented amount of big data as well as fake news to target voters. In post-truth politics national polls were not able to predict the outcome of the election, which led journalists to declare the death of data.

Kristof Trakal is an artist and writer, who lives in Berlin. Trakal’s work is process-based and often collaborative and participatory. It includes strategies such as acting, writing, LARPing, film-making, installation-making, dialog, research or photography. He is the founder of the Occult Acting Group and currently working on the film project Preparations IV. His works have been shown at Raumerweiterungshalle, Berlin (DE) 2014; the Sims OST. article in Till Wittwers collection: Songs for immaterial labourer, group show: Kongress der Artikulation, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (DE) 2014; Power House, collaborative participatory event over 5 days, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (US); The jaw is beeing screened at God is Love, exhibition curated by Ben Marvin, sunset terrace, Vancouver (CAN) 2013; Money on Monday. talk series about alternative business models and economies, held at Udk, Berlin (DE) 2012; CASINO. participatory installation, over the course of 4 days held at the year end show, UdK Berlin (DE) 2011; The Scottish Pub. interactive/relational installation, UdK Berlin (DE) 2010.