Text by: Charlotte Garlaschelli
What is the relationship between nature and humans? According to Félix Guattari’s Chaosmosis, “geopolitical configurations are changing at a great pace, while the Universes of technoscience, biology, computer technology, telematics and the media further destabilise our mental coordinates on a daily basis”. Humans have crossed a curious path, which brought them to an objectification of nature with a mechanism of mutual dependence on it. A circular movement, in which the subject of the research is also its object. However, despite being represented by the humankind, this nature cannot be uncontaminated, nor has it ever been.
In the age of Anthropocentrism, humans find themselves facing a new idea of nature, and detect a way to rediscover it, while also rediscovering themselves through senses and technology. This is the message presented by acclaimed international artists selected by Open Space Contemporary for the exhibition that will be held at the sky-roof space of the historical building of the Whiteleys Shopping Center, which will open to the public from 9 March for the occasion.
The exhibition was curated by Huma Kabakcı and Anna Skladmann. It will explore our sensitive possibilities in relation to their context, examining history and the vision of William Whiteleys himself, who founded the first lucky department store in London and desired a space under the sky that would be suitable for botanics.
The exhibition will be enriched by arboreal and plant installations from the Conservative Archive and the Anthroposensory: The New Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm catalogue of the young researcher Andrew Osborne. It will also become a venue for a series of events, live performances and meetings between artists and curators. The aim of these meetings will be to reflect on the possibility of recreating a map of nature, that will discover and welcome new environmental processes, in order to recreate the relationship between humans and nature through a sensitive stimulation with aromas, colours, textures and sounds.
All pictures by: Sarah Meyohas
Adventitious Encounters
9 – 22 March 2018
Whiteleys Shopping Centre, fourth floor, Queensway, London W2 4YN
Artists: Volkan Aslan, Augustine Carr, Alex Flick, Mustafa Hulusi, Soojin Kang, Radhika Khimji, Anton Lapov, Joshua Leon, Kate McMillan, Sarah Meyohas, Suzanne Moxhay, Goia Mujalli, Alexandre Mussard, Samuel Padfield, Paloma Proudfoot, Anna Skladmann, Magda Skupinska, Himali Singh Soin, Sigrid Viir, Chloe Wise
