Ecologies and Politics of the Living

The exhibition Ecologies and Politics of the Living explores the relationship between animate and inanimate environments, against the backdrop of a politically and economically interwoven world – primarily from southern perspectives. Similar to ecological inquiries into the interrelations of all existing organisms and processes on planet earth, the artistic positions focus on the intersection of living beings, (in)organic structures and their economic, temporal and spatial conditions.

Instead of thinking about “Climate Care” in technological, design or solution-based terms, which only reproduce capitalist ideologies of progress and accumulation, the exhibition will present speculative narratives. By breaking with the logic of linear development and the dominant notion of perpetual progress, it deals with questions of coexisting beyond the anthropogenic status quo, as a response and an alternative to capitalist notions of progress as well as other exploitative and invasive practices that are inscribed in our global history of conquest.

While some artistic positions look at the transformation of biological matter through chemical and physical processes, others analyze cultivation and upcycling processes from a socio-economic perspective. These processual and research-based projects address the production and processing of plants and raw materials in the context of the food and pharmaceutical industries, architecture and the visual arts.

With a post-anthropocentric reading, the exhibition Ecologies and Politics of the Living explores different narratives and presents a polyphonic collection of concepts focusing on planetary coexistence.

Program

2 October, 18:00 – 22:00
Sounds of the Living
Finissage + Sound Performance with noises out of nature and field recordings by Natalia Domínguez Rangel and Robert Schwarz (Live)

30 September, 18:00 – 21:00
Tamale Territories – Interventions
An evening of video-based interventions in the exhibition space by the Angewandte’s trans-disciplinary lab [applied] Foreign Affairs. The student projects focus on the inner-urban ecologies and peripheries of Tamale, Ghana – set in dialogue with the works of Ecologies and Politics of the Living.

29 September, 17:00
Curators’ Tour

16 September, 17:00 CET
Book Presentation Vienna (Online)
Panel Discussion with
Baerbel Mueller / Co-Curator, Architect
Billie McTernan / Writer, Editor
Elisabeth Falkensteiner / Co-Curator
Eric Gyamfi / Artist
Ibrahim Mahama / Artist, Co-Curator
Marie Artaker / Graphic Designer
Uriel Orlow / Artist

9 September, 17:00
Curators’ Tour

18 August, 17:00 (GH) / 19:00 (CET)
Book Presentation Ghana
SCCA– Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art Tamale, Ghana
Panel Discussion with
Baerbel Mueller / Architect, Co-Curator
Bernard Akoi-Jackson / Academic, Writer, Artist
Eric Gyamfi / Artist
Ibrahim Mahama / Artist, Co-Curator
Robin Riskin / Writer, Curator
Tracy Thompson / Artist (tbc)
(Hybrid mode)

2 July 2021, 18:00
Curators‘ Tour

10 June, 19:00
Artist Talk with Mae-ling Lokko (IoA Sliver Lecture)
Live on Zoom

8 June, 17:00
Artist Talk with Verena Tscherner and Joerg Auzinger / Collective Action Viewer
(Preview Program Angewandte Festival)
Live on YouTube from Karlsplatz

28 May, 19:00–21:00
Artist Talk: Ibrahim Mahama and Tracy Thompson
Live on YouTube

27 May, 18:30
Online Opening of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021
Live on Zoom

27 May, 19:30–22:00
Soft Opening of the Exhibition