Tucuman artist and architect Tomas Saraceno, who is based in Berlin, opened the building on Friday At Serpentine Gallery, his first gallery in the UK, is a lively and collaborative exhibition connecting different systems, animals and cultures With works in various props, such as his Cobwebs, his work on the Salinas Grandes de Jujuy and the film recording of the first fossil-fuel-free human flight, as well as other pieces that intertwine science, art, and politics, in a powerful call to awaken and transform our relationship with the environment.
as well as the occupation of the Serpentine South building in London, The Saraceno et al. is on display until September 10 in the outer gardens known as the Royal Gardens. From space, they define it as an exhibition that “deeps into how different forms of life, technologies, and energy systems relate to the climate emergency.”
Artworks, indicators and experiments make up that interconnected whole that a man from Tucumán offers in London, along with cobwebs, sculptures and other artistic developments designed to interact with, for example, the insects and animals that inhabit Great Kensington Park. In harmony with what you want to light – the continuity and interdependence of environments, ecological well-being – and also what is denounced – exploitation, abuse and appropriation – the sample is powered by solar panels and adapts its consumption to the energy generated, reducing the intensity of the lights and the frequency of the projections until a power outage if necessary.
Furthermore, upon entry, visitors are invited to voluntarily hand over their mobile phones to break their dependence on technology and connect with a more accepting approach to our environment. The infrastructure at Serpentine South has also licensed changes and adaptations that allow animals, plants and humans of all ages to be recognized and accommodated: equipment, installation height, doors and all artwork have been modified to encourage more movement of living things and air.
in one of its five rooms, The artist shows part of his work with the indigenous communities of JujuyIt is a course of action embodied in the condemnation of the exploitation of water resources to extract lithium, which is the primary metal in the manufacture of batteries for mobile phones and electric cars.
Earlier this year, Saraceno (1973) spoke with Tellam W He announced that for the exhibition “the usual entry times will be changed and the air conditioning of the exhibition area will be turned off, The public will be invited to turn off their mobile phones – since we warn about the extraction of lithium used in phone batteries – and the interactive sculptures in the park will also be habitats for birds, insects, foxes and ducks.”
In tune with the artist’s productions, the exhibition at the Serpentine proposes the interconnectedness of ecosystems, an alert about how ways of life, extractive technologies, and energy systems relate to the climate emergency. For this reason, Saracino suggests looking at other, non-human perspectives, such as those of spiders, as his source of wonder and inspiration.
A section of the exhibition invites the audience to interact with the web of fortune-telling spiders in Somié, Cameroon (nggamdu.org), a web portal of an ancient divination ritual by which some spiders, who live in a kind of small caves, when they come to light, move some leaves on the ground – like a kind of tarot – and emit “messages” which are interpreted by the deity, a practice An old. “I believe in guessing spiders more than AI in ChatGTP,” the artist said of the project.
in front of the London Gallery, Visitors can press some of the bikes to generate energy which allows them to listen to the reading of the “Manifesto for the Energy Transition” It does not perpetuate the “imbalance” between North and South, as Saracino said when consulted by AFP, which calls for “a rejection of the false solutions that come with new forms of energy colonization,” such as the unsustainable manufacturing of lithium batteries.
“Those who are suffering and will suffer from ‘climate change’ are not responsible for all the carbon emissions that are in the atmosphere,” and “at the same time that the global north now wants to make the energy transition, they are suffering again because they will go,” Saraceno said in statements to Agence France-Presse. Like 500 years to exploit and colonize lands that don’t belong to them.”
A record of what was titled “Fly with Aerocene Pacha” was also shown.the feat of a female pilot at the Salinas Grandes in January 2020, without the use of fossil fuels, solar panels, batteries or helium, “Propelled only by air”, powered by the sun and driven by the wind – a global initiative promoted by BTS, a K-Pop group Very popular South Korean.
The immersive cinematic installation of the event – which set 32 world records – brings to the room every detail of what happened at the hands of Aerocene, the environmental activism community founded by the artist: pilot Leticia Noemi Marques who flew in the balloon that the message “Water and life are more precious than lithium” had It moved along with the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc, Jujuy.
On the other hand, on June 23, Pope Francis will receive Saraceno in the Vatican.“We will see what synergies are produced,” the artist said of that meeting with the Argentine ink.
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