Text by CLOT Magazine
Slovenian-born artist Saša Spačal describes herself as a post-media artist, seeing her artworks as components of technological ecosystems that relate more with being human than with using old or new media. With an education in humanities, her research focuses on living systems, sound design, and interactive visualisation. Wrote Ana Sancho in an interview with Saša Spačal in 2017.
I am foremost interested in the environment. The complexity of ecosystems where human beings play a part in co-creating them are plugged into them and are dependent on them and not a species reigning on the top of the food chain. Saša Spačal told CLOT during the interview. Adding, I understand all of the materiality as only an incarnation of a certain concept that can be constructed with hardware, software or wetware, resulting in hybrid phenomena inscribed in mechanical, digital and organic logic.
From November 10, 2023, to February 4, 2024, Art Laboratory Berlin will present TERRA XENOBIOTICA, based on Saša Spačal’s current artistic research.
In TERRA XENOBIOTICA, Saša Spačal explores soil life at airports. As humanity remains locked in an ongoing cycle, a holding pattern of takeoffs and landings, the notion of a final landing lurks in an unimaginable distant future, states Spačal. The installation Eternity Scanner invites the public to explore how pollutants, especially perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), permeate the soils of airports.
While the film Holding Patterns, written by Saša Spačal and cultural theorist Alison Sperling, creates a dystopian near future scenario where airports still exist but without function, exploring the matter of ground and soil pollution. The film examines the complex and varied epistemologies involved in modern concepts of travel and identity, proposing a new model of responsibility, care, and stewardship.
This November 10, in the context of the BERLIN SCIENCE WEEK, Saša Spačal will introduce TERRA XENOBIOTICA. The talk, moderated by Regine Rapp, takes place at 6 p.m. at Art Laboratory Berlin.
The talk is free, but registration is necessary. Register here.
