Knowledge-speculation During Climate Crises - ”When You Say We Belong To The Light We Belong To The Thunder” at EKKM (2019) Jussi Koitela.
[A]ddressing the climate crisis and crises caused by human agency and western thought, there is a need for exhibition methodology which handles much more complex and intersectional approaches than the current representational and politically reductive modes of presenting artworks, research, or critical discourses. In many cases, these models reduce the meanings of artworks and artistic research (which contain complex processes of experimentation and exploration, references to multidisciplinary theoretical conversations, and multivocal political debates) to discourses which highlight the most straightforward, and populistic aspects of the works.
What becomes evident after experiencing the exhibition is that it’s crucial for contemporary art institutions to support and foster long-term projects of curators, institutions, artistic researchers, and practitioners which manage to create new forms of knowledges regarding complex urgencies such as contemporary colonialism, climate chaos, and nationalism.
He seems very impressed by the exhibition curated by Heidi Ballet and hopes that it will serve as a point-of-departure for future exhibition making processes. I wish I’d share his optimism. I fear the process of “exhibiting” is categorically self-affirming. Exhibition architecture, so very rarely, allows people to discover themselves forming disruptive assemblies. They emphasize professional-flâneuring, which echoes work or more accurately faking working (which is faking knowing whats what). Exhibitions allow people to discard disruptive inputs. With “disruptive” I don’t mean violent.. More like, disruptive as in discovering how to be a parent. Every learning experience is disruptive and I think learning by doing is most effective (workshops are key).
We had our first exhibition building and sound-session with Johannes yesterday. We also visited Oksasenkatu 11 for the MEMExhibition by HYPERREAALIYAH. The artist has written an intriguing paranoia-inducing text kuinka lakkasin olemasta ja opin rakastamaan meemejä* (2018). We discussed how (or if) browsing internet has taught us to desensitized ourselves. Shared an anecdote from Outi Heiskanen, who recalled playing with severed horse testicles in her youth (her father was a vet). The balls bounced like we presently know plastics to behave.
Visited Timo Bredenbergs Without Friction exhibition at Muu gallery. I enjoyed his video, it felt like a an archeological excavation of present day financial capitalism executed from the future. We were presented with broken 3d renderings of New York City landmarks, important for the recent history of global economics. The architectural views were followed with text snippets, which felt like a future archeologist field notes and glimpses of shaky virtual hands, which attempted to interface with the information. The hand gestures echoed signs stock traders used in the past to signify transactions. I think the archeology of hand gestures in itself would be a really interesting exploration.
Digital Frictions: Where Code Meets Concrete (2019) Shannon Mattern. The article uses a still of Bredenbergs video as an illustration and explores the frictionlessness nature of economic-cities. As a reply for the text we could argue that creating patterns and shapes which refuse to align with contemporary spaces (both digital and tangible) is important, because odd designs cause friction, which is need for developing energy.
Every engine needs friction. I guess an analogy for accelerationisms would be “to purposely oil a machine until it looses friction”.
As an exercise for exploring friction: The hands of partisipants could be oiled (with olive oil) and they would be guided to touch each others hands, so that the frictionlessness, would cause the participants to loose awareness of the other persons touch.