Progress. On Contemporary and Future Society
Posted on January 02 2023
+
Authors Silvia Colombo, Antonio Muratore
.
.
Progress. On Contemporary and Future Society │ December 2, 2022 - January 12, 2023
.
.
What is progress? On what ethical and moral basis does man undertake the evolutionary path that determines his being in the world, his relationship with the environment and with his fellow men? On what foundations and through what purposes does man undertake his scientific research? What are the outcomes and testimonies that have contributed to a qualitative improvement in human life? What are the outcomes and testimonies of the errors committed, and that man continues to commit? Although in a continuous re-evaluation and alteration of behavioral orientation, and in response to his own needs and necessities, man creates that linear evolutionary path that leaves traces of himself and from which it is possible to detect the most intrinsic nature of him.
The exhibition Progress. On Contemporary and Future Society answers these and further questions. These are open questions to which authors engaged in the various digital media respond by addressing the issue in various humanistic and scientific areas.
.
..
Annette LeMay Burke, Fauxliage - Stanford Rainbow, Palo Alto, CA, 2017
.
.
The future is often conceived and represented as an evolutionary moment. As if the passage of time left a trace proceeding forwards - or upwards, according to the point of view - only, with the exception of a few aftershocks. The future we mostly envision in terms of ‘progress’, is based on a collective memory filled with hyperreality, global improvement and utopian thoughts about our society. Not always though. In fact, there are some considering the future as an era full of excesses, marked by dystopic as well as catastrophist visions.
The collective exhibition, arranged at Millepiani, bridges the two, bringing to light and sometimes exaggerating our rational thoughts and our unconscious, but even our fantasies and fears. Through digital and photographic pieces as well as videos, the artists put on stage a futuristic theatre that is yet to come. Sometimes taking it to the limit and condemning it, some other times praising it. There is no home for neutrality here, since progress always brings along rationality together with emotivity. And this is especially true when considered through the lens of the arts and creativity.
The collective exhibition, arranged at Millepiani, bridges the two, bringing to light and sometimes exaggerating our rational thoughts and our unconscious, but even our fantasies and fears. Through digital and photographic pieces as well as videos, the artists put on stage a futuristic theatre that is yet to come. Sometimes taking it to the limit and condemning it, some other times praising it. There is no home for neutrality here, since progress always brings along rationality together with emotivity. And this is especially true when considered through the lens of the arts and creativity.
.
.
Tommaso Rada, A Story on Oil, Pollution and Racism - Infrared of Petrochemical Deposits, 2021
.
.
Looking at the artworks exhibited, one will realise that a common background exists, especially when displaying some recurring themes such as technological advancement, the evolution of the human body and social transformations. Overall, the exhibit shows some current issues here reinterpreted according to a seemingly progressive angle. For example, topics such as virtual reality, interconnectivity anywhere and at any costs and energy consumption (today more than ever highly topical) become monsters defying our planet and its ecosystem, but also humanity, subservient to indispensable needs. The consequences of this starting point are highlighted in other works framing the human body, and focusing on a corporeality progressively disappearing, overrun by or merged with the machine. Needless to say, the result is a sort of hybrid, non independent being. The light casted upon the theme of present and future progress seems thus to be gloomy, revealing a pessimistic vision that is far away from the idea of progress. It seems like the current concerns are magnified when projected into the future, until they occupy all the - thematic, real, virtual as well as emotional - space around them.
.
.
Dmitry Lookianov, Instant Tomorrow, 2016
.
.
.
.
Tianhu Yuan, Raffles City and Qiansimen Bridge, 2021
.
.
Matej Filipic, Pipeline - NEK, 2022
.
.
Philip Ringler and James Saxon, Earth.air, 2013
.
.
Tomislav Marcijus, Baranja Dreaming, 2022
.
.
Eric Tomberlin, I, Me, Mine, 2022
.
.
.
.
.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
PROGRESS. ON CONTEMPORARY AND FUTURE SOCIETY
December 2nd, 2022 - January 12th, 2023
Millepiani - Via N. Odero,13, Rome - IT
linfo@millepiani.eu
+39 06.888.17.620
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Connect