The visual artists and operators of the nomadic project space stay hungry, Michel Aniol & Meike Kuhnert, present the immersive installation Strange Paradise in a collaborative exhibition, which can be seen from 19. Oktober – 23. November 2024 on the occasion of the annual programme Habitate at SCOTTY.
Image above: © Michel Aniol & Meike Kuhnert, Strange Paradise 2024
The works shown in Strange Paradise deal with a new ecology of the approaching post-Anthropocene and its effects on the encounter and impact of nature and the legacies of human civilisation.
The omnipresent climate change and the resulting destruction of nature create new situations every day in which the fauna and flora of our planet are confronted with the effects and traces of human activity. In addition to the well-known displacement and extinction of many animal and plant species caused by changing temperatures and the associated new climatic conditions, as well as the complete destruction of biotopes and ecosystems and the progressive contamination of soil, air and water, there are also areas in which nature and man-made changes are breaking new ground and forming a kind of pragmatic unity.
These semi-artificial, ecological niches and the imagination of their formulations and possible spaces in the future form the basis of the artistic investigation for Strange Paradise and the resulting works by Michel Aniol and Meike Kuhnert. The installative elements of the exhibition utilise the aesthetics and functionality of vivaristics and aquaristics, the aim of which is to artificially create a natural habitat in the human environment and keep it alive in order to enable the care, study and breeding of animals and plants as close to nature as possible.
Strange Paradise visualises possible scenarios of a not-too-distant and indeterminate future in which these new encounters between nature and man-made, civilised remnants are presented and tested. Part of the work focusses on the still largely unknown and complex life under water and in particular on the ecology of the so-called flower animals, better known as stony and soft corals. In an experimental process, everyday objects were moulded in concrete, which have now been colonised and kept in a hydroponic culture with corals and other marine organisms for a year. Another part of the installation is dedicated to terrestrial habitats, in which a transition from human culture back to a new naturalness is depicted through the overgrowth of objects.
WHEN?
Vernissage: Friday, 18 October 2024, from 7 pm
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 19 October – Saturday, 23 November 2024
WHERE?
Projektraum SCOTTY
Oranienstr. 46
10969 Berlin
