COLLIDING EPISTEMES: Art, Science, Anthropocenes
The boundaries between the sciences and the arts have been profoundly destabilized by the Anthropocene as runaway ecological breakdown corrodes the epistemic structures of carbon modernity. This exhibition explores the potential of art practices to reshape the governing paradigm of scientific understanding by disrupting its atomized logic and pushing research methodologies to the boundaries of the possible. It brings together artworks that emerge from the crucible of a collaborative process in which laboratories, technologies and expertise have opened up to the catalyst of artistic invention. Liberating enquiry from the constraints of Holocene epistemologies, such settings create the conditions for unconventional responses to planetary challenges to be articulated. With the reversal of the usual division of roles, “science for art’s sake” could be the alternative maxim of art-science collaborations in which art poses the questions and science illuminates a pathway to outcomes. The diversity of approaches in the exhibition reflects the eclectic palette of scientific expertise engaged in the Studiotopia project, from oncology to marine biology, chemistry to ecological psychology, seismology to more-than-human anthropology, as well as palaeontology, photonics, data science and plant biology. In light of the multiple challenges of the Anthropocene, from the disaster of climate change, species extinction and the rolling pandemic to the accelerating hybridization of natural and synthetic worlds, Colliding Epistemes amplifies the call for epistemic diversity, resists a priori demands for utility and advocates for socially just and ecologically conscious scientific practices. When the epistemes of art and science collide, disciplinary boundaries dissolve, the hierarchies of Western thought are radically subverted, and hybrid forms of untamed knowledge of the world emerge.
The exhibition Colliding Epistemes is conceived as a tripartite constellation of cellular clusters presenting collaborations that materialize the shifting sands of artistic and scientific concern in the Anthropocene. In the first cluster on Speculative Ecologies artists draw on alternative epistemes to challenge the spatial order and temporalities of the Anthropocene. Invoking folk wisdom to foretell the future from fish intestines, hypothesizing the pre-human evolution of plastics and tuning in to the frequencies of a primeval bog are all means to reveal the collision of human and natural histories in the new geological epoch. Scientific observation of the effect of light on microscopic particles is another artistic starting point to inquire into the radical interconnectedness of all living and non-living terrestrial entities and the origins of biological life. The second cluster Earthly Sensorium gathers artworks that create the conditions for heightened ecological sensitivity and challenge societal indifference towards fellow species. Contemporary science and vernacular knowledge coalesce in the interdisciplinary study and appreciation of the vegetal world, while empathy with plants is identified as a societal factor in bringing about ecological transition. Alternative epistemologies thrive here on sensorial exchanges between taxonomic orders, with poetry, painting, movement, as well as sound and smell, creating a phenomenological bridge to aberrant cells, geomorphic vibrations and cerebral waves. The third cluster on Hacking Technocracy gathers art practices that subvert the technological panaceas and superficial solutions to systemic problems advocated by corporate and political interests. The ecological shortcuts promised by biotechnology, green capitalism and virtual representations, which leave unjust social structures untouched, are subverted by imagining non-technocratic trajectories, advocating low tech adaptations and animating alternative scenarios.
This exhibition is the culmination of thirteen art-science collaborative residencies organised within the framework of Studiotopia: Art meets Science in the Anthropocene (2019-2022), an initiative co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, and hosted by eight cultural institutions across Europe. Working alongside Ars Electronica in Linz, GLUON in Brussels, Laboral in Gijon, Onassis Stegi in Athens and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the venues for the three iterations of the exhibition are Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) and Cluj Cultural Centre in Cluj. The artists and collectives, whose creative engagement with the scientific teams over the course of the Studiotopia project is showcased in Colliding Epistemes are 3 137, Kat Austen, Dmitry Gelfand & Evelina Domnitch, Hypercomf, Voldemārs Johansons, Kuang-Yi Ku, Sandra Lorenzi, Oswaldo Maciá, Siobhán McDonald, Ciprian Mureşan, Alexandra Pirici, Maja Smrekar and Christiaan Zwanikken. The collaborating scientists are Chris Bean, Paco Calvo, Markos Digenis, Sven Dupré, Laurence Gill, DM Hoyt, Alexander Kish, Sofie Goormachtig, Emmanuel Grimaud, Arwyn Jones, Jonas Jørgensen, Emilia Leszkowicz, Jean-Christophe Marine, Alexander Kish, Audrey-Flore Ngomsik, Antoine Reserbat-Plantey, Florian Schreck, Guillaume Schweicher, Emily Shuckburgh, Sanneke Stigter, Hugo Thienpont and Indrė Žliobaitė. The exhibition is curated by Maja and Reuben Fowkes.
Artists & Scientists in Residency
Sandra Lorenzi (ART) & Jean-Christophe Marine (SCI)
Kuang-Yi Ku (ART) & Jean-Christophe Marine – Sofie Goormachtig (SCI)
Hypercomf (ART) & Markos K. Digenis (SCI)
3137 (ART) & Dr. Audrey-Flore Ngomsik (SCI)
Alexandra Pirici (ART) & Paco Calvo (SCI)
Ciprian Mureşan (ART) & Sanneke Stigter – Sven Dupré (SCI)
Christiaan Zwanikken (ART) & Emmanuel Grimaud – DM Hoyt (SCI)
Dmitry Gelfand – Eveline Domnitch (ART) & Florian Schreck - Guillaume Schweicher (SCI)
Oswaldo Maciá (ART) & Chris Bean – Emilia Leszkowicz (SCI)
Maja Smrekar (ART) & Jonas Jørgensen (SCI)
Kat Austen (ART) & Indre Žliobaitė – Laurence Gill (SCI)
Voldemars Johansons (ART) & Hugo Thienpont – Alexander Kish – Antoine Reserbat-Plantey (SCI)
Siobhán McDonald (ART) & Chris Bean – Arwyn Jones – Emily Shuckburgh (SCI)