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Currently Iria Arenas is developing an artistic research project at the Stockholm University of the Arts supported by the Hessische Kulturstiftung.

An investigation that questions the capitalization of our time and claims the right to be bored and do nothing in a stupefied, anxious world on the edge of nervous breakdown.

It has been proved that showing boredom or appearing as if you are doing nothing is seen as a threat to the general working order of this society, creating a sense of the unknown. Introspection and reflection have become lost arts specially in western cultures where the balance of activity and inactivity its seriously out of sync. We are slowly becoming victims of the informational overload of this capitalistic system where the demands of the art market, as in any other field, is influencing de artistic practice. To become a successful artist is not only about producing the work but also about promoting it. Constantly.

With no periods of uninterrupted, free-associative thinking, creativity, and insight, we are at risk of loosing our selves in a society that is hijacking our time. A person without the capacity to have time for himself and to - literally - be bored, is a person condemned to neither live its life nor develop its talents because boredom, as Walter Benjamin said "is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience".

Through this artistic research project I suggest alternative approaches to this topic. I want to create the space to reflect our current situation today and to offer the option to stop and highlight that doing nothing and being bored can be invaluable to the creative process.