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until 13.05. | #1066ARTatBerlin | insitu shows from 25th February 2017 the group exhibition “Corridor II: Pachama”.
Pachamama is a term used by indigenous groups from South America for the goddess mothernature. Their understanding of a “buen vivir” (good living) as a way of doing things in a harmoniouscommunity, a community that includes nature, led to the first implementation of the Rights of Natureby a governmental constitution in Ecuador 2008. The Rights of Nature means a change ofperspective. Under this law, nature is no longer understood as property but is acknowledged in all itslife forms as having the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles. Taking thisspecific moment in time, Corridor II: Pachamama asks: What does it mean to see nature not only as asource for harvest and economic wealth, but as an equal partner? How do we understand andimagine this partner? What kind of different intelligences are contained within nonhuman worlds?
Corridor II: Pachamama is part of Cycle IV by the curatorial collective insitu, an ambitious threeexhibition cycle dealing with the potential of time travel. Described as Corridors each exhibition takesvisitors on an unfolding narrative that provides a special exhibition-viewing experience. Each showwill begin with a significant moment related to scientific discoveries or notorious events in history.These three chosen moments will each investigate the relationships between human and nonhumanworlds and connect to the idea of humans as ‘forces of nature’ – from strategies to restore inflicteddamage to ecosystems, to attempts to capture and comprehend the mysterious and the magical ofthe earth.Viewers will travel through key elements of the event and explore the bigger questions that arise fromit. Further, they will also be drawn into the sensations and emotions of an experience: momentarilystepping into the shoes of those who pioneered a situation.
JUSTINE BLAU (born 1977 in Luxembourg) is a virtual world explorer. With the help of image materialthat she sources from the World Wide Web, the artist creates three-dimensional sculptures of as yetundiscovered landscapes that would likely never exist. The new work of the artist is a 1:5 replica inpaper of a 390 year old bonsai. The original bonsai survived the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima andnow lives in Washington D.C. in the National Bonsai Museum. The cultivation of a bonsai is the linkbetween horticulture and art and the fact that it is cultivated by human hands is what allows it to livefor such a long time. This specific bonsai is, however, much more than that: a sign of the friendship oftwo formerly hostile nations and an example of the fact that nature can be indestructible.
JIMMIE DURHAM’s (born 1940 in Washington, Arkansas) art is not always the way it appears at firstsight. The work “My memory stick” typifies Durham’s practice where he often takes on the role of‘travelling collector’, in this case one who takes a piece of wood as a starting point for a visual poem.The small piece of wood belongs (perhaps) to a gigantic swamp cypress from the pilgrimage town ofChalma, Mexico. For the 200-year-old-narrator of the poem, the piece of wood or ‘memory stick’opens up a story about his encounters in life and the power of nature to hold memories. The storycloses with a particularly poignant warning: without knowledge of the past there is no hope for the future.
ADRIEN MISSIKA (born 1981 in Paris, France) gathers the sources of inspiration for his works duringhis many travels. Through immersive contemplation, he gives a subjective and critical analysis of thedifferent cultures that he encounters and their mode of coexistence with a given natural environment.Using a wide range of media – mostly photographs, videos and installations – he creates newscenarios that raise subtle malfunctions within what seem to be harmonic cohabitations. In”Navitech” (2016), magnetised needles placed upon leaves become compasses, one of manydemonstrations that natural strength exists without any human intervention.
ELSA SALONEN (born 1984 in Turku, Finland) experiments with a range of poetic materials – frommeteorite dust to pigments distilled from plants – to create works that destabilise the hierarchy ofscience over magic. In her research she unites animist belief with deep ecology, a recognition ofhuman life as just one of many equal components of a global ecosystem. For “Corridor II:Pachamama”, Salonen is creating a new site-specific installation composed of local medicinal plantsthat she collected from specialised natural healers ‘hierbateros’ in traditional Colombianmarketplaces. Through this piece, Salonen presents a belief system where nature spirits are capableand willing to heal humans as well as pointing toward an interconnectedness of the whole planet.
DANIEL STEEGMANN MANGRANÉ (born 1977 in Barcelona, Spain) wanted to be a biologist as ayoung child. This connection to the endless flow of life and its constant transformations, continues toinform his artistic language. In his video work “Teque-teque” (2010) a single horizontal pan of therainforest inverts, flips, changes direction or focus each time the trill of the endangered teque-tequebird is heard. On one hand the technique is used to explore the structure of film itself, while on theother it presents a disorienting and hypnotic sensation for viewers who have the feeling of enteringthe rainforest and the sound of the teque-teque.
HARTMUT STOCKTER’s (born 1973 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany) humorous drawings, sculptures andvideos present imaginative investigations into nature or tools that could assist these investigations.Like in children’s books, Stockter’s works suggest discoveries of hidden, anthropomorphic worlds likefor example his pieces “Earthworm Ambulance” (2014) or the “The Mole Defence Academy” (2015). Ina sort of self-made, vintage aesthetic his ‘inventions’ reminds one of Jules Vernes’ fantastical stories.For “Corridor II: Pachamama” the artist presents the “Snail Chewing Listening Device” (2012). Visitorssee a metal form that is part-large snail shell and part-amplifier connected to headphones anddirected to a plant with potentially a snail on it. Placed in the window of insitu, this piece functions asan entry point to the show by introducing the question of how we can listen to nature.
Vernissage: Friday, 24th February 2017, 6 to 9 p.m.
Exhibition period: Saturday, 25th February to Saturday, 13th May 2017
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Image caption: Hartmut Stockter, Aflytning Af Sneglegnasken, 2012
Corridor II: Pachamama – insitu – Kunst in Berlin ART at Berlin
