Where are they, the utopias of our day? The visions of living together in a society that can be made productive? Artist Concha Jerez breaks up the seemingly visionless present with selective disruptions.
With Concha Jerez (ES)
Europe appears to have become estranged from its age of utopias. The range of projections of society in the history of European thought is wide – from Plato to Thomas More and the numerous utopias that sprang from the spirit of the Enlightenment, to the social utopias of the 19th century and the ecological utopias of the 20th century. But over time, not only did they fall into oblivion, but were even intentionally transformed and monopolised by commercial and political interests.
Endless present, future with no alternatives – Spanish artist Concha Jerez sees withdrawal, intervention and disruption as possible strategies for breaking out of this inert state and fighting the nascent totalitarianisms of our time. Society’s key survival strategy, in the sense of raising its awareness and its ability to act, according to Jerez, consists in interferences, i.e. disruptions.
The artist undertakes a number of artistic interferences of this kind in her solo show “In Search of Lost Paradises”. Activated by the productive disruptions, visitors are invited to reflect on their own utopias and to rethink the future.
Co-produced by steirischer herbst, esc medien kunst labor, kunst@werk
