God is Green
Manifattura tabacchi, Florence
9–18 October 2020
From 9 to 18 October 2020, Manifattura Tabacchi will once again turn its attention to spreading public awareness with God is Green, filling its spaces with videos, sounds, and words which reflect upon the climate emergency and the impact of mankind on the natural environment, in order to look into strategies and practices that will help us to “survive on an infected planet”, to quote the words of philosopher Donna Haraway.
SUPERCATASTROPHE aims to bring together some of the leading exponents from the rich network of artists, thinkers, activists, and cultural operators who have begun to reflect in original ways upon the geological era we call the Anthropocene, irremediably marked by the presence of mankind.
NERO, an international publishing house devoted to art, criticism and contemporary culture, sets out the ideas and concepts behind the festival:
“The pandemic of 2020 and the scorching summers which, thanks to the climate emergency, we have become accustomed to, are symptoms of a catastrophe already underway, and there is little that the green economy and any ‘sustainable’ conversion can do to fight back. It is a catastrophe which is forcing mankind to ask questions that would have been unthinkable before now: are we on the verge of extinction? How is it possible to live on a planet whose resources have been depleted by mankind? What ties can we form in the middle of an environmental apocalypse, and also within the current political, economic, and societal situation?”
Within this scenario, SUPERCATASTROPHE assumes the form of a ‘hyperobject’ exhibition, a concept which the philosopher and ecologist Timothy Morton has used to describe a particular genre of ‘objects’ where we can perceive their boundaries but never have a complete and clear picture of what they actually are. The exhibition will create an immersive environment within the spaces at Manifattura Tabacchi, with videos, literature, sounds and spoken words forming a kind of media archive on the climate emergency and the impact the mankind is having on planet Earth.
“A hyperobject could be a black hole. A hyperobject could be the oil field in the area of Lago Agrio, in Ecuador, or the Everglades reserve in Florida. A hyperobject could be a biosphere or the solar system. A hyperobject could be the complex sum of all of the nuclear material present on Earth” Hyperobjects (NERO Editions, 2018)
The outfitting of the exhibition forms part of the exhibition itself and is curated by the artistic and architectural collective Parasite 2.0, using reprocessed discarded items and fluorescent pigments as a means of reflecting on the relationship between the natural habitat and human intervention.
Within the outfitting by Parasite 2.0 there is a wide selection of videos from Medusa, a leading Italian newsletter on the Anthropocene, which has scoured the web and Youtube to collate an alienating portrait of a planet in collapse. Accompanying this spectacle will be a sound collage which brings together research carried out by Threes in the area of experimental electronic music and environmental sustainability, and there will also be a selection of literature from Not, creating a library of volumes especially selected for the occasion, which the public are free to use and consume.
Manifattura tabacchi, Florence
GOD IS GREEN
9-18 October 2020
Curated by NERO
With the collaboration of Medusa, Not, Parasite 2.0, Threes, Andreco, Clara Ciccioni, Federica Timeto and Miriam Tola
All Images
Photo by Giovanni Savi