Utopia, Dystopia: Tony Cokes and Oscar Muñoz | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Utopia, Dystopia” presents two single-channel videos from the MFA collection by Tony Cokes (b. 1956) and Oscar Muñoz (b. 1951). Created in the last decade, the films grapple with the duality of utopia and dystopia, expressing the artists’ senses of how idealistic visions of society often collide with harsh realities. Utopian dreams can promise a future without oppression and celebrate freedom of expression, yet achieving these ideals frequently comes into conflict with underlying dystopian truths such as systems of control, state surveillance, and deep inequality.