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Soft Rains – 

"This Is Not Water" - Hydropower Conflict Centre in Times of Green Paradox

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Janosch Birkert

 

For thousands of years, man has tried to make natural environment fit for his use by shaping it to his needs. For several centuries, technological progress has enabled mankind to control a large part of natural environment on our planet and to transform its consisting naturalness into economic or social added value. In many places this has led to new ecological states, which carry with them not only a complete loss of biodiversity, but cause also nature to adapt and function artificially. Hydropower is part of this story of man’s use of natural resources. In recent decades, hydropower projects have undergone increasing 
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Filippa Pettersson & Tamara Antonijevic interview on 7AM

The performance is set in an office environment under water, where the audience can witness three creatures doing their routines. I wouldn’t call it a futuristic scenario, it’s rather an impression of these imagined beings that look and act a lot like humans. However, as the performance unfolds, it becomes clear that there is something off about them and that they are maybe not human at all.
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Speculative Biology
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Dr. Pinar Yoldas

In her lecture artist and scientist Pinar Yoldas discusses her concept of "Speculative Biology".
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Superflex (DNK)
„Flooded McDonald's“

Superflex is a collective comprised of the Danish artists Jacob Fenger (b. 1968), Rasmus Nielsen (b. 1969), and Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen (b. 1969), who have been working together since 1993. They consider their works as a way to question systems of power, capitalism, and the potential of artistic practice in different social fields. They have received international attention with their provocative political initiatives such as their 2007 campaign to include Palestine in the “Eurovision Song Contest”, and their cooperation with Brazilian farmers to create an energy drink called “Guaraná Power”. More recently, in 2017, they 
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BE DAMED - CAROLINA CAYCEDO

In her practice between art and activism, Carolina Caycedo developed a corpus of works, that questioned the production and distribution of hydroelectricity, and the colonization of nature. In 2018 her work Esto no es agua, part of her research on the social and environmental effects of dams, was part of the exhibition "There Will Come Soft Rains" at basis e.V. in Frankfurt am Main.
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Andreas Greiner (DE) & Tyler Friedman (US)
„Study 01“, „The Molecular Ordering Of Computational Plants“

The collaboration between Andreas Greiner and Tyler Friedman started in 2014 and can be seen as an ongoing project of sharing thoughts and combining skills and knowledge. With an interest in speculative biology, their works are a trajectory in progress, charting a thought experiment that proposes organic-cellular structures as hyper-complex computational devices, contributing to an imaginary strain of futurology in which intergalatic- space is quantum and life is electric. To this end, Andreas’ visual elements combine with Tylers’ sound and science fiction offers reflection on living sculpture, rendering a multi- 
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Apr 11, 2018

Climate change and migration - Scientific Talk with Diana Hummel and Lukas Drees

This lecture will be in German Language. Please check the German Website for more information.
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ISOE Design Labs

Jan 9, 2018

Workshops for a more sustainable way of living in the city

The Workshops will take place in German language. Please check the German website for more information.
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Die multiple Krise
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Ulrich Brand

(English version to be published soon)
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Carolina Caycedo (EN)
„Esto no es agua / This Is Not Water“, „Foresight Filaments“

Carolina Caycedo’s artistic practice unites activism and art. She translates her research, interviews, and documentation into objects, drawings, and videos meant to be shown in exhibition contexts. Territorial resistance, the fight for the rights of indigenous populations and their environment, is a central aspect of her work. Through visual forms, sounds, and lectures she spotlights unspoken realities and ecocides around the world and opens up space for potential discussions and paradigm shifts. Water elements have become particularly central in her work; as Caycedo has stated, “In Indigenous cosmogonies of the 
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Hicham Berrada (MAR)
„Celeste“

Hicham Berrada’s artistic approach centers on the experimental use of chemical substances as materials. In his installations, performances and film-based works he relies on these chemicals to provoke reactions, which often evoke associations of microscopic, ephemeral forms of natural organisms and landscapes. The artist not only places the focus on the poetry of spontaneously occurring processes with his works, but also critically explores the late-modernist view of a nature that can be dominated by science and technology.

5 Questions with Mario Pfeifer

1. What does the idea of a non-human world mean to you? Do you see it as an inspiring artistic proposition or as a real possibility for the near future? I would say it's a rather scary proposition. Therefore it can be an inspiring idea for an artist. In my case, I find it more inspiring to think about how to avoid such a scenario and wonder what would the conditions for a non-human world be: war, disaster—or an outlook on a better habitat than we currently live in. How realistic is it? Well, it's more realistic with world leaders who use language like, “We are going to bomb the shit out of you,” or, “Climate change is a hoax,” 
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Julian Charrière (CH)
„Iroojrilik“, „Pacific Fiction—Study for a Monument“

Stones, or natural elements such as lithium and salt, say a lot about human behavior and history. Julian Charrière travels around the world in order to play with these elements in a deeply poetic way. He has climbed an iceberg off the coast of Iceland, confronted radioactive regions in Kazakhstan, and crossed a desert in the south of Bolivia. Inspired by science-fiction visions such as “The Terminal Beach” by J. G. Ballard, he has developed a corpus of work that explores broadly the consequences of atomic power and radioactivity.
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Interview with Jeronimo Voss

1. The exhibition is based on the narrative of a non-human world. This theme defines the context for the artists and visitors as well as for the additional education program. For your project you decided to stage holograms of bookshelves photographed in living rooms. What is your main interest in this topic? I got the idea when I read about the ancient mythology of Cassandra. Cassandra is the seer that herself isn’t seen. According to Greek mythology her prophecies are ignored by her fellow Trojan citizens because she is cursed by a god whom she refuses to have sex with. As a priest, as a seer, she states 
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Soft Rains – 

Marcela Armas (ME)
„TSINAMEKUTA“

Decolonization is not always only a matter of identity and roots, but also may involve the liberation of environment and nature. It is no secret that even today, western globalist companies are impacting the cultures, societies, and environments of Latin American countries. This imbrication of consequences are essential aspects of Marcela Armas’s artistic research. Through installations, handmade technological apparatuses, and films she investigates the mechanisms and processes of de- and re-territorialization.
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Jeronimo Voss (DE)
"Cassandra's Cave"

In his artistic practice Jeronimo Voss mostly creates installation works that can be interpreted as multilayered designs for historic and parallel worlds. By means of montages of slides and various projection methods he conjures up narrative spatial situations which are not only defined by the intermingling of the past, present, and future, but which also trace the overlapping of pictorial and social reality. Recurring focal points of his artistic exploration can be found in the cosmopolitical interpretations of astronomical hypotheses and the critical examination of neo-liberal promises of progress.
Soft Rains – 
Soft Rains – 

Uriel Orlow (CH)
„Remnants of The Future“

Uriel Orlow’s artistic practice is defined by a research- and process-oriented approach and the recurring use of the media film, photography, drawing, and sound. Using these he designs multimedia installations in which he relates different image regimes and narrative modes. His interest centers on the exploration of concealed micro-histories, whose specific locations and spatial inscriptions he reveals and investigates in his works.
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Galina Leonova (RUS)
„Air“

In her artistic work Galina Leonova explores the transformation of social and moral value systems and the epistemological grasp of our reality against the backdrop of current technological advances. She particularly addresses this thematic field in the context of installations and filmic works in which she reflects upon the specific points of intersection between our human lifeworld and the new media in an experimental manner. At the same time, her artistic approach involves a recurrent exploration of various forms of future scenarios, which serve her as a fictional point of reflection for analyzing current developments.

I have 5 questions Mr. Orlow

1. What does the idea of a non-human world mean to you? Do you see it as an inspiring artistic proposition or as a real possibility for the near future? The world is non-human, we are the last to arrive to the party - and we are definitely spoiling the fun.
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Will There Come Soft Rains?
with Carolina Caycedo

1. What does the idea of a non-human world mean to you? Do you see it as an inspiring artistic proposition or as a real possibility for the near future? It's a world where we understand that processes of representation and of production of knowledge are not exclusively human. A non/human world is a pluriverse where many worlds are possible, instead of a Universe where everything is determined by the white male colonizer human experience.  In many places of Latin America the post human evidences itself today, the fact that the earth is a subject with rights as determined in the constitutions or Bolivia or Ecuador, 

Pinar Yoldas

1. What does the idea of a non-human world mean to you? Do you see it as an inspiring artistic proposition or as a real possibility for the near future? I do not get a kick out of the possibility of a non-human world. Since humans emerged as a species who dominated the planet, a world without humans would mean that our models for civilization failed us. I do not find inspiration in the mass failure of human cultures, to live harmoniously with other organisms inhabiting Earth. My inspiration comes from the intrinsic and undeniable beauty of the natural world in its all complexity to the point that we understand it with our 
Soft Rains – 

Pinar Yoldas (TR)
„Ecosystem of Excess“

In her roles as artist, designer and scientist Pinar Yoldas takes an interdisciplinary approach to the field of biological phenomena, as well as to the use of digital technologies. She creates extensive installations, kinetic objects and film-based works focused on contemporary issues surrounding post-humanism, eco-nihilism and a feminist-oriented techno-science.