Adaptation to the Future

How does our society deal with the changing conditions of life on Earth, environmental, technological and political? How does this state of constant change affect our binary, linear, and laboratory understanding of the world? The work of students and recent graduates of the UMPRUM Department of Fine Arts through an exhibition and series of performances Adaptation to the Future follows this fluid terrain and reflects on how art and artists can influence processes that threaten the quality of life not only for humans but also for other organisms.

“Humanity has radically transformed essentially everything on this planet, and artists must now ask: what is happening to our trust in the material world as we know it? And how should we perceive and resolve the relationship between this “given” materiality and the materiality of data and information. A new pressure on the material aspect of the artwork repeatedly and urgently forces artists to reconsider their formal decisions in relation to a warming Earth, the ethics of production, transportation, and political responsibility,” as the curators Edith Jeřábková and Aleksandra Vajd, heads of the Sculpture and Photography I Studio, outline the issue of contemporary art in relation to the development of the climatic situation.

Adaptation to the Future reflects on how the present generation is building faith in a future that is being challenged by science. How to create faith in the relevance of art that, by virtue of its material condition, is a part of human creativity that is awe-inspiring from a cultural perspective but has brought this planet to its current state of anticipated collapse. We must pay attention to how small states such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia understand their responsibility for the material goods they have at their disposal. It leads to ways on how to reflect on the local level of the impact of the Anthropocene on both human and nonhuman spheres.

 The selected works that are part of the exhibition challenge the concepts of a superior humanity, a dual organization of things, linear time, material purity, originality, the metric system and a market perception of objects and things. The works remind us that reality is not absolute, but it is the only thing we have jointly agreed on as a global society.

The exhibition Adaptation to the Future will be open to visitors from Friday 8th November in the gallery FOTOPUB. Various performances and the launch of the 12th issue of the ŠUM magazine under the title Threshold Ecologies will be held as part of the Adaptation to the Future project. Before the exhibition opens on Tuesday, November 5, several events will be held in Ljubljana - performance duo Stony Tellers, a concert by ((SCARYPOOL)) and a joint dinner that will connect different art scenes and communities.

Exhibitors: Anna-Marie Berdychová, Klára Čermáková, Viktor Dedek, Lenka Glisníková, Linda Hauerová, Vít Jebavý, Filip Kopecký, Denisa Langrová, Stony Tellers, Vojtěch Novák, Olbram Pavlíček, David Střeleček, Adam Vít
Curators and architectual design: Edith Jeřábková a Aleksandra Vajd
Graphic Design: Vít Jebavý
Photography: Lenka Glisníková
Production: Michaela Kaplánková
Cooperation: Dušan Smodej, Anetta Mona Chisa, Linda Hauerová

Exhibition Partners: ŠUM MAGAZINE, FOTOPUB, OSMO/ZA, ŠVICARIJA, MGLC

Program

Tuesday, November 5th, 2019

5 pm, Tivoli City Park, Ljubljana, near the greenhouse
HOW TO TELL GLOBALIZATION FAIRY TALES, performance by the STONY TELLERS

6:30 pm, OSMO/ZA, Slovenska cesta 54, Ljubljana
SOUND INSTALLATION BY VIKTOR DEDEK

8 pm, ŠVICARIJA, Pod Turnom 4, Ljubljana
COLLECTIVE DINNER WITH FIRE AND GUESTS CONCERT BY ((SCARYPOOL))

Friday, November 8th, 2019

6 pm, FOTOPUB, Tivolska cesta 44, Ljubljana
- exhibition opening ADAPTATION TO THE FUTURE
- performance by  STONY TELLERS HOW TO TELL GLOBALIZATION FAIRY TALES
- performative reading within the scope of the launch of ŠUM magazine #12, which was made in collaboration with the project Adaptation to Future