Artists: Ravi Agarwal / Maria Thereza Alves / Vasco Araújo / Amy Balkin / Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan / Luna Bengoechea Peña / Ursula Biemann / Tania Candiani / Juanli Carrión / Carolina Caycedo / Tomas Colbengtson / Dušan Čavić & Dušan Šaponja / Cian Dayrit / Ex-Artists’ Collective (Anikó Loránt – Tamás Kaszás) / Dirk Fleischmann / Nina Galić / Regina José Galindo / Asunción Molinos Gordo / Kitti Gosztola / Lungiswa Gqunta / Tue Greenfort / Michaela Grill / Igor Grubić / Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller / Markus Hiesleitner / IC-98 / Ingela Ihrman / The Institute of Queer Ecology / ISUMA / Anne Duk Hee Jordan / Kinga Kiełczyńska / Jacob Kirkegaard / Elena Lavellés / Diana Lelonek / Ernst Logar / Tea Mäkipää / Mary Mattingly / Nemanja Milenković / Anna Moreno / Amor Muñoz / Kevin Michael Murphy / Michael Najjar / Branislav Nikolić / mirko nikolić / Nils Norman / Fernando Palma / PSJM (Cynthia Viera & Pablo San José) / Marjetica Potrč / Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts / Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle / Vera Stevanović / Robertina Šebjanič & Gjino Šutić / Škart / Thomas Thwaites / Adrienn Újházi / Marie Velardi / Mariëlle Videler / Tanja Vujinović / Juan Zamora / Bo Zheng
Project and curatorial direction: Blanca de la Torre and Zoran Erić
The term overview effect was coined by Frank White in 1987 to describe the cognitive shift reported by a number of astronauts having looked back from Space to Earth. The question is it only from such a distant point of view of the planet we occupy, as the “crew of the Spaceship Earth” to use Buckminster Fuller’s metaphor, that we can first realize that this “spaceship” is slowly running out of “fuel” and that the crew is in need of “oxygen”?
This project seeks to explore the complexity of the ecological problematics and the inseparable links between them and issues like corporate imperialism, indigenous sovereignty, gender, different kinds of extractivisms and the importance of decolonising not just history but also our concept of nature in order to reshape an inclusive mindset akin to a post-anthropocentric world.
The goal is to rethink the issue of environmental justice and propose an approach to art one possible way to a better future and to building an awareness that opens a path for a new eco-aesthetics approach.
The curatorial strategy explores alternative exhibition-making formats and responds to the rhizomatic idea of ECO_LABS where six realms represent distinct sub-themes, all of them interconnected:
1 – Gender, race and the colonial trace
2 – Watertopias
3 – There is no edge!
4 – Learning from indigenous knowledge
5 – Beyond anthropocentrism
6 – Back to the future
Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the project has taken shape in two stages. The first part and the launch of Overview Effect was held on October 2nd 2020. It comprised a group of outdoor installations, specific interventions in different urban and rural areas, performances, artist’s workshops, artistic projects on Instagram, etc.
The second part, is an exhibition throughout the 5 floors of the Museum, with 60 artists, artistic duos or collectives, that will be held at the main building of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade from June 19th to September 20th, 2021.
Opening of the exhibition: Saturday, June 19th at 1 pm
Programme on the opening day:
3 PM Panel discussion: Forms of extinction: Land, Water and Biodiversity.
Conversation with the artists Vasco Araújo, Juanli Carrión, Markus Hiesleitner, Elena Lavellés, and ŠKART, moderated by curators Blanca de la Torre and Zoran Erić.
4.30 pm Panel discussion: Back to the Future: Alternatives, Possibilities and Speculative scenarios.
Conversation with the artists Kinga Kiełczyńska, Anna Moreno, Michael Najjar, Robertina Šebjanič, and Juan Zamora, moderated by curators Blanca de la Torre and Zoran Erić.
6 pm Jacob Kirkegaard sound performance in front of the Museum
For more information about the project and exhibtion/opening programme please visit the homepage of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgade.
Project and curatorial direction: Blanca de la Torre and Zoran Erić
Assistant curator: Dušan Savić
Production: Dragana Jovović
Design: Katarina Popović and Andrej Dolinka (project logo)
Cover picture: New Earth © Mihael Najar
