Artists: Monira Al Qadiri, Maria Thereza Alves, Alberto Baraya, Ursula Biemann, Carolina Caycedo, Cooking Sections, Mark Dion, Mishka Henner, Reena Saini Kallat, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Almagul Menlibayeva, Katja Novitskova, Tabita Rezaire, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Himali Singh Soin

Potential Worlds 1: Planetary Memories is the first in a series of two exhibitions that will explore the relationship between humans and nature. The art gathered in both shows scrutinizes the interactions between man and nature from a variety of angles and limns potential future scenarios of life on earth. The works on view in the first chapter draw attention to the ways in which the environment has been appropriated in the pursuit of power and resources, shedding light on the repercussions for both nature and social fabrics. They also interrogate conceptions of knowledge in the natural sciences that have been developed in the course of man’s power-driven appropriation of the natural world.

An accompanying publication with essays by Benjamin H. Bratton, T. J. Demos, Suad Garayeva-Maleki & Heike Munder, Reza Negarestani and Jussi Parikka, as well as short texts by Milena Bürge, Anna Fech and Rabea Kaczor will be released in the summer of 2020.

Katja Novitskova’s key themes delve into Internet art practices, new technologies, and ecologies of the Anthropocene era. By dealing with the complexity and potential defectiveness underlying technological narratives of the world, she draws attention to the tools and technologies used in these media. Novitskova creates alternative geographies of biological organisms that emerge from data sets collected with microscopes, cameras, and visual algorithms—all devices that rely upon vision. Images researched online are often transformed into sculpture by digitally printing the material onto aluminum display stands. The site-specifc installation Pattern of Activation (C. elegans) (2020) is based on her series Approximation (2012 –ongoing) and Pattern of Activation (embryogenesis) (2017). It examines one of the most commonly used model organism species, the C. elegans round worm, through its mediated and mutated representations in bio-medical experimental research. Scaled up to the size of giant snakelike forms, these worm shapes wriggle weightlessly into the air, supported on cables. The giant worms slip out of their eggs, creating immersive, post-human landscapes that have overcome the biotic apocalypse, as if bio-technological mutants and artificial intelligence have replaced all wildlife. This eerie landscape reflects the potential ecological effects of increased human tinkering with life forms on the level of genomes and body structures, which can be seen as a new form of colonial expansion.

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