Buenavista
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
7 March – 21 April
Opening & Private View: 6 March, 6pm
Curated by Dehlia Hannah
The Franco-German collective Troika explores how new technologies affect our relationship with the world around us, through works that cross disciplinary boundaries. In an immersive presentation for Schirn, featuring a host of newly commissioned sound and video pieces, the group reflects upon earthly and the otherworldly landscapes, while exploring alternative forms of intelligence—plant, animal and machine. Curated by philosopher of nature Dr. Dehlia Hannah, the exhibition dramatizes the transformation of ideas of nature in the 21st century.
How does technology filter our perception of nature? What forms of life shall take root in such mediated landscapes? Can we envision an ecological consciousness in silica? Opening March 6 in the x Hall, Buenavista probes our sense of place in a more-than-human world. The installation conjures the environmental imagination of an alternative intelligence; one whose dreams are shaped by our own memories and fantasies. Spectacular scenes of nature flash across our screens and decorate our computer desktops: palm fringed beaches, ice sheets punctuated by lakes of turquoise meltwater, rippling sand dunes under starry skies. Forests are surveilled by cameras perched in treetops, on the watch for storms and wildfires. Climate models predict long-term changes in the biosphere. In a society saturated with digital images, descriptions and simulations, their work presents a vision of environmental yearning that transcends human embodiment.
As developments in artificial intelligence rapidly advance, conceptions of human intelligence and agency are shaking and shifting. In place of objective and readily quantifiable human characteristics, there emerge intimations of other-than-human modes of awareness, coordination and intention. What if plants show purpose and altruism, or demonstrate a sense of kinship much like animals? What if technological advancements in robotics and computation wander astray from the imperatives of efficiency, speed and optimisation for which they were programmed? Might emerging intelligences amplify or, alternatively, resist the extractive tendencies that drive present environmental crisis?
– Dehlia Hannah
7 March 2024 — 21 April, 2025
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
Opening 6 March 2024, 6pm