Text by Lyndsey Walsh
Since the S+T+ARTS Program launched in 2015, its mission as an initiative of the European Commission has been to serve as the nexus for Science, Technology, and the Arts through its STARTS Prize, STARTS Residency, and the nominated STARTS Lighthouse Pilots. In the fifth year of the program, S+T+ARTS has brought together the works of its artists and researchers to debut the new exhibition NEAR + FUTURES + QUASI + WORLDS at STATE Studio Gallery in Berlin, Germany.
NEAR+ FUTURES + QUASI +WORLDS is an exhibition that stands at a threshold of becoming. The works exemplify the S+T+ARTS Program’s mission to combine artistic practice with advanced research and innovation, exploring the promising potential of transdisciplinary exchange.
The projects aim to give way to a possible future and/or reality while also critically reflecting on our present. The exhibition includes the works of artists and researchers Refik Anadol, Ralf Baecker, Evelina Domnich and Dmitry Gelfand, Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves, Forensic Architecture, Iris van Herpen, Julia Koerner, So Kanno, Egor Kraft, Kasia Molga & Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner, and Etsuko Yakushimaru.
Curated by Manuel Cirauqui with the collaboration of Silvana Fiorese, NEAR+ FUTURES + QUASI +WORLDS brings the audience through a journey marked by radically abstract kinetic devices, permeations of the living in the world beyond, confrontations with the classical, contemplations on the multi-faceted, post-human thingness, as well as revelations on contemporary political issues. According to Cirauqui, the works can be experienced through a number of narratives from which the audience can construct their own meanings and interpretations.
NEAR+ FUTURES + QUASI +WORLDS opens the door to a breathtaking expanse of emerging interactions and works from the S+T+ARTS program as part of the vastness of its collaborative ecosystem. The multiplicity of readings in the show reflects on the diversity of interpretations and perspectives that the S+T+ARTS program’s artists have taken in their own ventures of transdisciplinary collaboration.
The exhibition launched on the 3rd of July at the STATE Studio and will be open until the 26th of July 2020. In effect with the necessary COVID-19 measures in Berlin, entrance to the gallery is permitted only while wearing a mask. STATE Studio also has a limited entry of 25 patrons at a time while maintaining a 1,5 meters distance between guests.
