Installation views from Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies) III at IMPAKT and Centraal Museum, Utrecht (NL), 2021

Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies) explores the state of love and intimate social relations today in the age of the Internet, social media and high capitalism—an age characterised by what sociologist Eva Illouz has called “cold intimacies”. It probes how the digital sphere, the impact of the technology giants and neoliberal practices have transformed love and romantic relations, and how they have influenced the way we interact with one another. The accessibility of the Internet to an ever-greater number of people has had both liberating and empowering effects, when deployed in the right way. In addition, crumbling taboos and biases around gender and sexuality and the advent of more open, emancipated varieties of lifestyles, have also liberated human choice in matters of the heart. On the other hand, we also live in a time that philosopher Byung-Chul Han has labelled “emotional capitalism,” where human emotions have been co-opted by market forces. The dating supermarkets of Tinder and Grindr, “speed dating” and the ease of Internet exchange—apart from offering possibilities—have also hollowed out relationships and led to selfish or narcissistic forms of behaviour and misleading images of the self, making it ever more difficult to establish what is real, meaningful or true.

Curated by Katerina Gregos