When the Story Goes Dark
The images associated with climate catastrophe, ecological collapse and pandemic aftermath have become a beacon that informs the way in which we move through the world. They have also become a relevant topic of investigation for artists, as we move away from anthropocentric concerns, and address worlds that go beyond the human. Conversations with anthropologists and philosophers of science inform recent cultural production in new and productive ways. What happens when these ecological concerns turn into subject matter for artistic and cultural practices, as has been increasingly the case over the last decade? How does this cultural production move, who gets to see it, who benefits from it? Does this generate visibility and engagement for the concerns that it claims to represent, or do we run a risk of it becoming part of greenwashing, and another trend that will eventually fade away? Artist Antje Majewski’s practice comprises paintings, video works, texts and performances that deploy an approach based on anthropological and philosophical questions. Fernando García-Dory’s work engages the relationship between culture and nature, as manifested in multiple contexts, from landscape and the rural, to desires and expectations in relation to identity, crisis, utopia and social change. Elizabeth Povinelli is a critical theorist and filmmaker whose work has focused on developing a critical theory of late liberalism that would support an anthropology of the otherwise.
Photo by sebastiaan stam
