At the core of the project “Industrial” are drawings with permanent marker on various surfaces. Partly figurative either fully abstract, the works question borders between drawing and (hand)writing, public and private space. Creating an iconography by repeating of similar motifs of industrial objects and modernist architecture of the past, remains of which slowly decay and turn into historical artifacts, the works explore aesthetics of the failure of human knowledge. Industrialization was associated with hope that new technologies will change life for the better; it was driven by a faith into endless abilities of human knowledge and intelligence, desire to reach other galaxies and bring under control nature. Modernity was expected to liberate people from physically hard and monotonous work, so they will have time to devote themselves to intellectual work and relaxation between journeys to other planets - according to ideas of cosmism of Russian philosopher Nikolay Fedorov, developed in late 19th century, outer space was the territory of both immortal life and infinite resources. [1] Nikolay Fedorov and lately his followers at the beginning of the October Revolution believed into necessity of immortality and resurrection with a help of science and technology – private property could not be eliminated until everybody owned his or her own piece of time. [2] Those ambitions impulses resulted in a new, much more controversial and complicated world. Blossom of capitalism, global economy, new geography of production, new materials and new generations of weapon. New professions, redistribution of resources, new landscape - geological, biological and ethnic. It seems that we are both outside and inside modernity, both repelled by its deadly violence and seduced by its most immodest aspiration or potential: that there might, after all, be a common planetary horizon for all the living and the dead. [3]
[1] Groys B. 2018: Russian Cosmism, MA: MIT Press.
[2] Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism, Conference at HKW on Sep 1 – Oct 3, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlH1UPkcMaY
[3] Is modernity our antiquity? Documenta 12 leitmotifs: https://www.documenta12.de/en/leitmotive.html
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