Art-Lovers Movie Club has featured Stine Deja’s 4K Zen as part of their weekly artist video spotlight on ArtReview.
Welcome to the Art-Lovers Movie Club, where every week you’ll find a new artist’s video available exclusively online at artreview.com for seven days.
If you’ve ever come across any ‘wellness’ products, you’ll know they can be a bit helpful, a bit expensive and also a bit self-indulgent and silly. These are the ideas that Danish London-based artist Stine Deja emphasises in 4K ZEN, her two-part project originally commissioned for the Roskilde Festival in Denmark in 2017. The first video works as a commercial showcasing the product: a guided meditation video that comes with a branded mat and this sensory-isolating thingamajig resembling a VR headset. The second video is the actual meditation you are guided through: serene nature scenes, whooshing sounds of water, the full works. Yet nothing is quite as calm as it first seems. “The sunlight from the clear blue sky is catching the tops of the waves in the distance” the narrator intones. “The whole ocean seems to shimmer and sparkle like paparazzis snapping perfect pictures of you.” Take a deep breath and… relax?