09 Mar 2011

Spaceship Earth at Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Torun

artists: Acconci Studio, Micol Assaël, Massimo Bartolini, Vladimir Bonačić, Loris Cecchini, Gianni Colombo, Olafur Eliasson, Xárene Eskandar, Alicja Kwade, Jarosław Kozakiewicz, Piotr Kowalski, Christiane Löhr, Katarina Löfström, Jakub Nepraš, Ernesto Neto, Christopher O'Leary & Casey Alt, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Tobias Putrih, Martin Rille, Simon Thorogood & Stephen Wolff, Aleksandar Srnec, Nikola Uzunovski, Johannes Vogl, Victoria Vesna

curated by: Dobrila Denegri

The more advanced science gets, the closer it is to art.
The more advanced art gets, the closer it is to science.

Richard Buckminster Fuller, one of the most influential architects of the last century, inventor, environmentalist and humanitarian, expressed in this way his belief in the dialogue between art and science—two principal domains capable of introducing novelties, creating visions and pushing forward boundaries of knowledge.

With reference to historical artistic figures whose work played an important role in bridging the gap between humanistic and natural sciences, like Piotr Kowalski and Vladimir Bonačić, or those who searched for direct contact and interaction with the public, aiming to underline the educative and emancipatory character of art, like Gianni Colombo and Aleksandar Srnec, this exhibition will explore some of the most cutting-edge research, in which different disciplines intersect today.

Art and nanoscience, through the collaboration between Victoria Vesna and James Gimzewski, open up perspectives that call for reconsideration of all prerogatives on which our relation to the surrounding material world is based. The same destabilising effect is produced by some of the most innovative and visionary architectures conceived and realized by Acconci Studio (initiated by the pioneer of body-art Vito Acconci) or by Diller Scofidio + Renfro authors of the Blur—world-famous example of 'formless, massless, colourless and weightless architecture'.

Call for social and cultural paradigms, which will bypass the dominant ones in favour of those more eco-sensible and holistic, is a common feature of the work of internationally renowned artists presented in this exhibition, such as Massimo Bartolini, Olafur Eliasson, Ernesto Neto and Lucy + Jorge Orta, as well as those belonging to the younger generation, who introduce a real novelty. Simon Thorogood challenges the notion of fashion by using sound to produce garments, Loris Cecchini creates floating cities while Xárene Eskandar designs movable 'body-architectures' which appear almost alive.

Spaceship Earth exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with essays by the curator Dobrila Denegri, geographer Franco Farinelli and artist Xárene Eskandar. It will inaugurate a new editorial activity of CoCA, with graphic design by Grzegorz Laszuk.