ART-PRESENTATION: From Creatures To Creators
Through the paradigm of science, death is no longer a divine decree, but rather a technical challenge. According to the latest findings of biogerontologists, the life span can already be extremely extended with the help of the right tools. There are, for example, “biohackers” who are researching ways to intervene in the human organism to improve its performance, optimize the body or manipulate the DNA. Transhumanists likewise are increasingly seeking to overcome biological limitations through technological solutions. Inevitably, the question arises whether the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) on a par with humans does not actually mean the end of Homo sapiens.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunsthaus Hamburg Archive
The exhibition “From creatures to creators” explores concepts of humanity with regard to our future subsistence. It assembles international artists who, from multiple angles, shed a light on ways of dealing with our human existence, including future conceptions of it, and also dare to conjure visions going beyond the finite, conceiving the superhuman. Spanning installations, sculptures, murals and video works, the exhibition thus combines a wide range of artistic approaches, negotiating complex subject matter such as invisible lines of molecular (bio)power, processes of self-optimization, spiritual healing and the prospect of eternal life. Saelia Aparicio operates within the paradoxical spaces that we can find in what we consider the normal and the everyday, using a unique symbolic system to represent, but also to digest, a stark reality. The artist creates a speculative universe for the audience and invites them to imagine with her, creating an ecosystem of characters and situations that drives us, without guiding us, into this fascinating thing we call present. From invasive species, to housing problems, pollution or climate crisis, her work navigates within this convoluted momentum using whispers instead of statements, talking through the materials she uses, the objects she builds, the shapes she creates. This produces in the visitor the aim to imagine and think collectively about alternative futures. Samara Daioub is a director and visual artist covering multiple disciplines such as film, video, videoinstallation, virtual reality and photography. Most of her projects deal with the relation between fear and safety, focussing on human instinctive behavior and social mechanisms. Reoccuring themes like defense mechanisms, idolization and the vulnerability of the objectified body built the foundation of her work. Zion Koenig is a 3D artist covering multiple disciplines like graphic design, game design and cgi. With a primary interest in social dynamics Zions’ work captures the realm between utopia and dystopia with a distinct and multi-layered visual language. Creating glipses into uncertain worlds in both an abstract and relatable way, Zion Koenig always seeks to challenge the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Ed Fornieles addresses the ways in which people portray themselves in the real world and online, along with all the decoys, masquerades and play-acting that constitute their public (and seemingly private) identities. His work involves elaborate scenarios in which Fornieles invites collaborators to adopt alter-egos and engage in role-playing. The settings for his work are often related to the coming-of-age phase in a young person’s life, or other rites of passage, such as high school relationships, frat parties or online seduction. Pakui Hardware is the name for the collaborative artist duo Neringa Cerniauskaite and Ugnius Gelguda, which began in 2014. The duo’s work spans around the relationship between materiality, technology, and economy. How technology is shaping current economy and the physical reality itself, including the human body. In relation to the velocity of technological development, the matter becomes both an obstacle and a vehicle. These questions are analyzed through such examples as High Frequency Trading, Prometheanism, synthetic biology and new materiality. Mary Maggic is a non-binary artist working at the intersection of biotechnology, cultural discourse, and civil disobedience. Their work includes documentary video, scientific methodology, public workshopology, performance, and large-scale installation. Tabita Rezaire is infinity incarnated into an agent of healing, who uses art as a means to unfold the soul. Her cross-dimensional practices envision network sciences – organic, electronic and spiritual – as healing technologies to serve the shift towards heart consciousness. Navigating digital, corporeal and ancestral memory as sites of resilience, she digs into scientific imaginaries to tackle the pervasive matrix of coloniality and the protocols of energetic misalignments that affect the songs of our body-mind-spirits. Amalia Ulman is an artist working with performance, installation, and video in both physical spaces and online contexts to expose how a technocratic and histrionic culture industry requires the performance of an equally contradictory and fabricated persona. The work of Emmanuel Van der Auwera provides cautionary tales and tools for navigating information in post-truth times, making use of emerging technologies, the architecture of mass media, and more traditional approaches to image making.
Participating Artists: Saelia Aparicio, Samara Daioub & Zion König, Ed Fornieles, Pakui Hardware, Alfred Kubin, Mary Maggic, Bernard Picart, Tabita Rezaire, Amalia Ulman, Emmanuel Van der Auwera and Steffen Zillig
Photo: Saelia Aparicio, From your exotic garden to your worst nightmare, 2020, Photo: PUBLIC Gallery, Courtesy: the artist and PUBLIC Gallery
Info: Curator: Anna Nowak, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Klosterwall 15, Hamburg, Germany, Duration: 23/7-24/9/2021, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, https://kunsthaushamburg.de
