At the launch of EARTH lab Bergen we attempt to explode the message of EARTH sharing and construct a transformative situation for people. The exhibition after World domiNation - EARTH sharing begins to crack open alternative concepts by approaching the local setting as a laboratory for organizational strategies and the development of a visionary vocabulary. You are invited to consider relations between domination and balance, reflection and contemplation, idea and action, form and spatial organization through several mirrored objects throughout the space. Horizontality and ground control are set against verticality; distributed and non-hierarchical configurations are presented alongside centralized organizational structures, and degrees of transparency is investigated. The conflicting agendas of EARTH domination and an imagined EARTH Nation are reflected in a series of interventions developed to encourage the public's repositioning and spatial engagement.
after World domiNation - EARTH sharing invites you to engage in an urgent shift where much is at stake: In recent centuries, the influence of human behavior on Earth's geology and ecosystems is so significant that a new geological epoch, the Anthroposcene[1], has been introduced. Since industrialization, humans and our technological advancements have produced approximately 30 trillion tons of physical infrastructure, buildings, and residue - now extending globally both on an underground and into outer space. Humans have become the biggest threat to future life on the planet: the hunger for progress, profit, and possessions, control and power, has lead to the current planetary condition, unique in the history of life on Earth, prompting questions about the end of our species' survival. In spite of the urgency of this situation, those inclined to pursue short-term gains by further exploiting the Earth's resources largely overshadow the voices of concern. The current global economy encourages greed and exploitation that benefit only a few. Just 8 men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the global population - social instability, climate change, waste and pollution follow. What are the alternatives to the destructive paths of global neo-liberalism? A budding form of political awareness considers the benefit of the totality of planet Earth - its biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, technosphere; all its people, knowledge, resources, needs and challenges - when imagining the future.
The exhibition is about establishing and contextualizing a site of exchange, referring to a "space" where the artwork, site, and audience converge. This coming together of social, spatial and critical context generates a political space that exists within a wider cultural sphere. 3.14 situates Vibeke Jensen's artistic practice within a dynamic, this dynamic is brought to life by the audience's engagement with the exhibition. The project welcomes new perspectives and approaches to our contemporality. Vibeke Jensen's art encourages this objective and put forth how we can give a yesterday and today, a tomorrow.
The timing of after World domiNation - EARTH sharing coincides with the 50-year anniversary of 1968 and 500 years since the Renaissance. The exhibition takes place in a monumental neo-renaissance building, erected as the Bergen office for Norges Bank. The building stands majestically in the bottom of Vågsallmenningen, a commons established after the city fire in 1582. Turned obsolete by digital banking, the office was closed down by the turn of the millennium and the building was taken over by the city. Currently the international gallery Kunsthall 3.14 is located on the main floor.
The building's former function as a bank and the vital potential of the timing and the location on the everyday public arena of the commons make this a potent site to introduce a paradigm shift.
Each of the artistic interventions is introduced in a booklet that can be downloaded here:
after WORLD domination, EARTH sharing and at Kunsthall 3.14
For more information and inspiration also visit: http://knowledgefederation.org/Polyscopy