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14/3/2014

Measures of Saving the World

Rotor, Graz

Artists:
Hannah Brackston, Catherine Grau / Zoe Kreye, Polonca Lovšin, Ralo Mayer, RESANITA, Kamen Stoyanov

Curated by:
Margarethe Makovec & Anton Lederer

“It is an irony of fate that just in our time, which might be called the final stage of Enlightenment and the Industrial Age, humankind cannot think and act wisely anymore despite its knowledge. Modern humans do not know nature anymore. They also do not know themselves.” This is what the Indonesian writer and visual artist Arahmaiani writes in her text Thoughts of a Dreaming Nomad. To set something against this missing wisdom is one of the motivations in the fifth and concluding part of the exhibition series. In the frame of the series we traced alternatives to the presently dominant ways of “cultivating“ our planet for a period of more than one year in total and presented artistic production in this context.

Measures of Saving the World
It is a lot easier to imagine the world ending than to changing for the better
John Jordan

The presently dominating model of human “management ” of planet Earth has reached the end of the line. Capitalism in the form of neoliberal m arket economy has resulted and is still resulting in a plethora of crises: “financial bubbl es, unemployment, crisis of distribution, climate crisis, energy crisis, hunger crisis, crisi s of consumerism, crisis of meaning, crisis of democracy” (Christian Felber). A system geared to p rofit maximization and competition with no regard for human and natural resources is a perm anent hazard for social and ecological peace on earth.

It is becoming more and more apparent that we have reached a dead end and many of us are deeply thinking about viable alternatives, reflecti ng their own position, and their own thinking and action. Already some time ago, Susan George, a political scientist based in France, revoked a dictum of neoliberalism. In opposition to the knockout argument of There is no Alternative she phrased the slogan TATA—There Are Thousands of Alternatives. The slogan that has accompanied the worldwide Social Forum sin ce right from the beginning, which is since 2001, communicates a similarly hopeful and ac tivating spirit: Another World is Possible.

It is within each and everyone’s discretion to make a start on this by him- or herself and not to wait for regulations from whatever authority, or to wait and hope—after all, the questions and challenges are also too complex for one big univers ally valid solution.

We’ll save the world by ourselves, each and every o ne of us. To critically examine your own position is the starting point for this, to analyze how your own work affects the world around you. Does it primarily focus on your self-interest or does it keep the big picture in view? Preferably, your own aspirations should serve the g eneral public, in the truest sense of the phrase ‘common good’—to the benefit of all. Christian Felber, a writer working from Austria, is one of those who work at a concrete alternative. The model of the Economy of the Common Good he formulated “promotes and rewards the same qualities of behavior and values w hich make our human and ecological relationships successful: confidence building, resp ect, collaboration, solidarity and sharing”.

The model starts from the assumption backed by scie ntific research that man is essentially “a social being liable to collaborate that is inherent ly emphatic and ready to help, and has a highly developed sense of justice”.

From the part of artists too, there are continuousl y significant and serious impulses in the discourse circling around alternative approaches to our behavior in the world. The artist and activist John Jordan, who has acquired renown for h is activities as a critic of globalization, is one of these visionaries and takes up the concept of Nowtopianism —the art of the future performed in the present. According to him, a funda mental rethink is necessary for a new, conscious and careful way to deal with the world an d as a consequence thereof art that affects every area of life—art that “embeds itself in our h omes and offices, shapes our meetings and gatherings, suffuses our bedrooms and kitchens, des igns our celebrations and resistance, organizes our villages and cities”.

Apart from wording utopias (or nowtopias), art can first and foremost communicate responsibility and permanent protest against the st atus quo. Radical thought, analysis and criticism of civilization, solidarity action, empow erment and individual directions—realized in both contextually and esthetically powerful arti facts may rightly be expected from artists dealing with questions of alternatives in their wor ks.

The range of topics the artists will work on is div erse and encompasses ecology and economy, politics and society with a focus on the following aspects:
* resources * environmental protection * recycling *sustainability *energy *mobility * consumerism * responsibility * redistribution * emp owerment * self-organization * solidarity

Margarethe Makovec & Anton Lederer

Image: RESANITA, Archival photograph of barrel stave towers in Wiersdorf / South East Styria, 1968

Press contact:
Eva Meran eva.meran@mur.at

14.3.2014
CMRK GRAZ
Starting from 6 pm., openings take place on this day at Camera Austria, Künstlerhaus KM– Halle für Kunst & Medien, < rotor > und Grazer Kunstverein,; referred to in short as CMRK. www.cmrk.org

< rotor >
center for contemporary art
Volksgartenstraße 6a, A 8020 Graz
Opening Hours: MO – FR 10 am - 6 pm, SA 12 am - 4 pm
Closed on Sundays and bank holidays
One Thursday each month all CMRK exhibtions are open until 9 pm: 20.3.2014, 10.4.2014, 15.5.2014

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