Anthropocene – Zeitgeist exhibition
In the Zeitgeist exhibition, the works of the artists participating in last year’s second cycle are shown organized into four parts.
The exhibiting young contemporary artists created their works using the broadest range of the photographic toolkit and applying a diversity of techniques and new media. Their pieces deal with current issues and the problems of our environment as well as topics concerning their generational scope of interest. According to the curatorial concept, the artworks within Zeitgeist are presented in a thematic order organized under four titles: Post-truth, Anthropocene, Mystique, and Identity. The totality of the works together represent the Zeitgeist, or the spirit of our times defining the way of thinking, the aspirations, and the objectives of people living in the first quarter of the 21st century. (Judit Gellér and Emese Mucsi, curators)
ANTHROPOCENE
In line with the anthropocentric mindset, the geohistorical epoch of the substantial changes caused by human activity received the name Anthropocene. The human civilization, as it is known today, emerged in the relatively constant climatic conditions of Holocene lasting for ten thousand years. While during that period, the greatest force transforming the surface of the Earth was the Sun, according to the concept of Anthropocene, the human presence in this new era exercises a similarly big impact on the planet due to the social prosperity of mankind, the concurrent human overpopulation and the toll taken by the global trade rigorously guided by the principle of infinite growth.
The artists of this section work with different sub-topics of Anthropocene. Some works deal with the global ecological crisis and the relation between the individual and the environment in this context (Martin Eberlein, Mateusz Kowalik). One of the projects, presenting a New Zeland town, thematizes the interactions between the community and the local industrial developments, and the resulting economic restructuring processes that are taking place (Jake Mein). Other series investigate the ongoing transformation of the key symbols of the natural world due to the climate crisis, and the impact of these changes in multiple domains – the significance of the Sun and the economic, cultural and aesthetic changes attributable to the increasing amount of solar radiation in Southern Europe (Rocco Venezia); or the ocean as a body of water with great natural and political importance at the West Coast of the United States (Garrett Grove). There are also projects that ask philosophical and aesthetic questions regarding ‘Otherness’ (Cihad Caner); and ones that make visible the interim and vulnerable situation of asylum seekers through recounting their stories in a semi-personal way (Sinead Kennedy).
The works displayed in the Anthropocene section are not activist initiatives. Avoiding didactic solution proposals, they seek to tell stories, shape attitudes and raise awareness of individual responsibility with the help of sensual effects and visual representation. (Emese Mucsi, curator)
Artists: Cihad CANER (TR/NL), Garrett GROVE (US), Jake MEIN (NZ), Martin EBERLEN (UK), Mateusz KOWALIK (PL), Rocco VENEZIA (IT/GR), Sinead KENNEDY (AU)