In this immersive installation, commissioned by the MAK exclusively for the VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE 2021, Superflux transports visitors into a vision of a post-anthropocentric future no longer determined by humans alone.
In cooperation with the forestry office and fire department of Austria's Neunkirchen region, the designers are bringing several hundred trees recently burnt in a forest fire into the MAK. As visitors walk through the burnt and blackened forest of trees, they notice how their skeletal remains gracefully return their fertility to the earth around them. On arriving at a clearing, a glistening pool invites visitors to observe their reflections in the water, alongside those of many other species on the planet.
This evocative installation provides an opportunity to reflect on our fragile, closely networked relationship with the natural world—an opportunity to imagine strategies that go beyond merely human concerns, based on regeneration, redistribution, and rewilding.
The project is so designed that all the installation’s components will have an afterlife to neutralize its CO2 footprint.
Artists: Superflux
Curator: Marlies Wirth
Curatorial Assistence: Antje Prisker
A project by Superflux
Head: Anab Jain, Jon Ardern
Team: Ed Lewis, Florian Semlitsch, Niccolo Fioritti, Eva Tausig, Lizzie Crouch, Leanne Fischler, Nicola Ferrao, Matt Edgson
Soundscape: Cosmo Sheldrake
Motion Design: Michele Vannoni and Dimitris Papadimitriou
