INTOX - Another Issue-Theme

Intoxication is mostly just a funny concept. In specialized society it is everywhere in one form or another, or multiple forms at once, of course. Whether we’re drinking alcohol or coffee, smoking marijuana, snorting cocaine, eating mushrooms, shooting heroin or just taking a prescribed drug, we’re constantly seeking distance from our natural states. The simple act of intoxication—used here to denote all forms of legal and illegal drug use—is so ubiquitous that one has to wonder why there are such arbitrary structures of taboo and acceptance surrounding them. Why, for example, are there wine connoisseurs but not cocaine connoisseurs? Obviously the prevalence of such people has to do with the legality of substances, but apart from that, what is in the heart of the aesthetic of wine that is not in the aesthetic of cocaine? It could be interesting to deconstruct the ethos surrounding our many quick-fix substances and reassign the romances (or lack of) attributed to each.

If I may go into a tangent, one installation that could be included in this issue-exhibition could be a totally self-serve liquor bar, reminiscent of the cold uncomfortable surroundings of a hospital, thus replacing the ethos of that particular intoxicant with the stark, straight-forwardness of medical intoxicants. Such an installation could be called, simply, INTOX.