Colliding Epistemes: Art, Science, Anthropocenes

places:

Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art 1 Jaskółcza 1, Gdansk, Poland
Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art 2, Strajku Dokerow 5, Gdansk, Poland

“Colliding Epistemes: Art, Science, Anthropocenes” is an exhibition presented in Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Gdansk, Poland since 4th of February till 3rd of April 2022. This exhibition is the culmination of thirteen art-science collaborative residencies organised within the framework of Studiotopia: Art meets Science in the Anthropocene (2019-2022), an initiative co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, and hosted by eight cultural institutions across Europe. This exhibition explores the potential of art practices to reshape the governing paradigm of scientific understanding by disrupting its atomized logic and pushing research methodologies to the boundaries of the possible. It brings together artworks that emerge from the crucible of a collaborative process in which laboratories, technologies and expertise have opened up to the catalyst of artistic invention.  Liberating enquiry from the constraints of Holocene epistemologies, such settings create the conditions for unconventional responses to planetary challenges to be articulated. With the reversal of the usual division of roles, “science for art’s sake” could be the alternative maxim of art-science collaborations in which art poses the questions and science illuminates a pathway to outcomes. The diversity of approaches in the exhibition reflects the eclectic palette of scientific expertise engaged in the Studiotopia project, from oncology to marine biology, chemistry to ecological psychology, seismology to more-than-human anthropology, as well as palaeontology, photonics, data science and plant biology. The exhibition Colliding Epistemes is conceived as a tripartite constellation of cellular clusters presenting collaborations that materialize the shifting sands of artistic and scientific concern in the Anthropocene. In the first cluster on Speculative Ecologies artists draw on alternative epistemes to challenge the spatial order and temporalities of the Anthropocene. The second cluster Earthly Sensorium gathers artworks that create the conditions for heightened ecological sensitivity and challenge societal indifference towards fellow species. The third cluster on Hacking Technocracy gathers art practices that subvert the technological panaceas and superficial solutions to systemic problems advocated by corporate and political interests. Curators of the exhibition are Maja and Reuben Fowkes. 

Artists & Scientists in Residency:

• Sandra Lorenzi (ART) & Jean-Christophe Marine (SCI)
• Kuang-Yi Ku (ART) & Jean-Christophe Marine – Sofie Goormachtig (SCI)
• Hypercomf (ART) & Markos K. Digenis (SCI)
• 3137 (ART) & Dr. Audrey-Flore Ngomsik (SCI)
• Alexandra Pirici (ART) & Paco Calvo (SCI)
• Ciprian Mureşan (ART) & Sanneke Stigter – Sven Dupré (SCI)
• Christiaan Zwanikken (ART) & Emmanuel Grimaud – DM Hoyt (SCI)
• Dmitry Gelfand – Eveline Domnitch (ART) & Florian Schreck – Guillaume Schweicher (SCI)
• Oswaldo Maciá (ART) & Chris Bean – Emilia Leszkowicz (SCI)
• Maja Smrekar (ART) & Jonas Jørgensen (SCI)
• Kat Austen (ART) & Indre Žliobaitė – Laurence Gill (SCI)
• Voldemars Johansons (ART) & Hugo Thienpont – Alexander Kish – Antoine Reserbat-Plantey (SCI)
• Siobhán McDonald (ART) & Chris Bean – Arwyn Jones – Emily Shuckburgh (SCI)

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