Qolony | AFTERLAND | EXHIBITION

AFTERLAND

→ Artworks from eight Romanian and international artists, in the exhibition AfterLand, from 4th of June 2024, at Rezidenta9 in Bucharest

Asociația Qolony - Colonia pentru artă și știință invites the Bucharest public to AfterLand, an exhibition opening on June 4th, starting at 19:00, hosted by Rezidenta9, which brings together works by an international group of artists working at the intersection between art, science and nature. Each of them has a particular affinity with water, approaching it from different angles, as varied as the symbolic values of the element itself. From the basic understanding of water as the physical and spiritual source of life, to ecosystems and biodiversity, through the socio-political perspective in which water is a battleground for military and economic powers, to the almost “incredibly magical” connections between cybernetics and fluids, AfterLand is a unique effort of revelation and context creation at the crossroads of disciplines and mindsets. The exhibition will be on view until 26 June.

Clara Boj and Diego Diaz (Spain) build on their experience as participants in the Mar Menor, an interdisciplinary research focused on the Spanish lagoon, an area of unique biodiversity in a state of significant deterioration. Mark IJzerman (Netherlands), one of the Starts4water grant winners in 2022, focuses on the concept of the ‘Anthropocene’, the geological era of human impact on ecology. Sébastien Robert (France/Netherlands) travels around the world recording endangered sounds, or close to extinction, whether due to globalisation, climate change, or any other human impact. Floriama Cândea (Romania) explores in her work the possibilities of a sustainable future, meditating on the relationships between species, between natural and artificial, between human and technological. Robertina Sebjanic (Slovenia) is one of Europe’s leading actors in cultural water ecology projects. Last but not least, Ioana Vreme Moser (Romania/Germany) works at the confluence of socio-economic commentary, electronics and science, including research on fluid computers.

In addition to the group exhibition where the some of the works of the artists will be accessible for the first time to the public in Romania, the AfterLand project also involves a small research and documentation trip to different localities in the Danube Delta, between 5 and 8 June, where the team will visit the laboratories of the National Research and Development Institute in the Danube Delta. On 9 June, the artists will participate in an event open to the public, also hosted at Rezidenta9, in partnership with QuoArtis Foundation, an international organisation based in Spain, that fosters the links between art, science, technology and ecology, ARTSHARE - an organisation in Portugal that focuses on developing processes, products and services that combine artistic practices and technology, and Obsolete Studio, an organisation in France dedicated to transdisciplinarity through educational initiatives and research projects.

AfterLand is part of a very interesting wave of cultural projects in Romania that position themselves at the confluence of discourses and mentalities considered until recently in categorical opposition. The symbolic complexity of water represents in this context an opportunity, a framework in which scientists, artists and people interested in technology can inspire each other and offer new perspectives and experiences to the public of Bucharest.