They Told You So · Group exhibition

bitforms gallery presents a group exhibition featuring Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead, John Menick, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Roee Rosen, and Brina Thurston, curated by Mireille Bourgeois and Anaïs Lellouche. The works employ a process akin to what the Situationists International have referred to as détournement — reusing established media to invert, expand, and parody the rhetoric of power. Through video, sound installation, and printed text, the artists deconstruct how authoritarian language operates via surveillance systems, subliminal messaging, and technological mediation. Featured works include performances testing lie detectors, audio pieces using subliminal techniques, video documentation of domestic performances, and sound-sculpture installations. Each artist investigates how media technologies become vehicles for unidirectional communication and manipulation, revealing power relations between the speaker and the receiver that operate outside traditional conversation.

Works