Ondine Viñao

Talent Show (March 22nd, 2019) was an interactive performance by Ondine Viñao. A panel of judges presided over the event, but “talent” was left undefined, encouraging participants to showcase whatever they felt deserved its moment on stage and engage with the audience throughout the night.

Viñao curated a panel of five judges along with an emcee to host the event. 

Judges: Dean Kissick (writer and columnist for Spike Art Magazine), Rebekah Campbell (photographer), Satchel Lee (creative director of Drome Magazine), Roy Vleck (political satirist and filmmaker), and Viñao. The role of emcee was performed by actress Sasha Frovola.

Talent Show was exclusively promoted through social media. The public was encouraged to sign up online prior to the presentation date, stating their specific “talent”, and this information was then conveyed to the emcee to help prepare the night’s schedule and their master of ceremonies performance. The contestants were given an approximate window of five minutes each to carry out their performances. 

Talent Show examined the challenge of judging creative work, asking: by what standards do we assign value? Viñao created a score sheet with eight categories, each rated from 1 to 10. As the categories became increasingly abstract and contradictory, the judges encountered inconsistencies but still arrived at a final score - one that offered little meaning, yet produced a numerical winner.

Viñao arranged for Doob 3D, a 3D-replicant company, to produce an 8-inch replica of the competition’s winner. This miniaturized figure reflected the event’s underlying theme: a night centered on the celebration of the self. Each participant embodied a sense of personal conviction - the judges in their ability to crown a winner, the emcee in their power to command attention, and the contestants in the value of their own creativity. The prize, a statue of the winner, was both a souvenir of success and a literal symbol of self-importance, capturing the spirit of a culture absorbed with individual validation.