In 2010 the Eclectic Electric Collective, an arts collective founded by Jakub Simcik and Artúr van Balen (DAI, 2022) sent an inconspicuous suitcase to Mexico. In the suitcase lay a twelve metre inflatable hammer. Inspired by the quote “Art is not a mirror hold up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”, the intention was to create new narratives around the need for climate action. As the police tore the sculpture to pieces, global media corporations declared El Martillo a symbol of the international climate change protests. The hammer is now part of Qualcosa nell’aria / Something in the air, which furthermore showcases works of thirteen artists examining, deconstructing, claiming the choreographies of protest that take place in public space. Among them also DAI COOP tutors Marwa Arsanios and Rory Pilgrim. At the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, till June 12, 2022
Qualcosa nell’aria / Something in the air
Curated by Irene Calderoni and Bernardo Follini
Artists: Marwa Arsanios, Carolina Caycedo, Eclectic Electric Collective* | Tools for Action, Andreas Gursky, Arthur Jafa, Sara Leghissa, Sandra Mujinga, Muna Mussie, Rory Pilgrim, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Ghita Skali, Alberto Tadiello, Artur Zmijewski
Qualcosa nell'aria (Something in the air) is the group exhibition opening the third season of Verso, a programme of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, designed and produced with the Youth Policies Department of the Piedmont Region, as part of the National Fund for Youth Policies.
The title suggests a dual perspective: on the one hand, it alludes to the potential of an emancipatory and transformative collective action; on the other, it proposes an in-depth analysis of an element that, due to its transparency and imperceptibility, is often considered neutral and non-political. The exhibition focuses on air, understood as a material around and through which important contradictions and conflicts are expressed today, within the political, social and economic dimensions. The air is observed as a scenery crossed by transgenerational shouts and demands against oppression and for climate justice, but also by the sound of clashes and hostilities in the streets and in the sky.
The works of thirteen artists examine, deconstruct, claim the choreographies of protest that take place in public space. They channel air to build technologies of defence and offence, tools that can gather or disperse bodies. They portray the collective life of the new generations, constructing the possibility of a community space animated by ecological perspectives, but also of a place dedicated to intimate reflection on one's own identity. They investigate the link between environmental change, the economics and processes of marginalisation, exploitation and cultural and material extractivism. In the exhibition the air is politicised and stripped of its innocence, read in close connection with the power dynamics that operate between human beings, and between the human and the non-human.
Eclectic Electric Collective*=
Jakub Simcik, Artúr van Balen, Sarah Drain in collaboration with artists from Germany and activists from Mexico. Germany: Organ Kritische Kunst / Pablo Herman, Juan-Pablo Arce, Marcelo Arteaga, Erika Ceruzzi, Juan-Pablo Diaz, Alexander Dunst, Armando Gomez, Csilla Hodi, Rafael Ibarra, Alex Misick, Hanna Moik, Maria Nuebling, Gábor Pinter, Heather Purcell, Ricardo Ramirez, Melanie Schlachter, Anton Theileis, Jakub Theileis, Betti Tóth, Latefa Wiersch. In Mexico antic@p / Marea Creciente, Miriam Buyer, Christian Guerrero.