“Once Upon a Time in an Unknown Future –

Es war einmal in einer unbekannten Zukunft”

Group exhibition curated by Özgür Erkök Moroder & Kristina Kramer
48 Hours Neukölln Festival
14-16 June 2019

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Umspannwerk

Richardstr 21, Neukölln

Artists:
Mika Satomi & Hannah Perner-Wilson (Kobakant, JP/AT), Ceren Oykut (TR), Ibrahim Quraishi (Kenia), Ingo
Randolf (AT), Johannes Vogl (DE)

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We find ourselves in the midst of an accelerated present and we’ve already outpaced numerous events predicted by oracles, seers and astrologers―or not. They say the future is written in the stars, but that’s where we were decades ago. And the years 1984 and 2001 are long past, but nevertheless the future seems to catch up with us again.

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The exhibition "Once Upon a Time in an Unknown Future" explores from an artistic perspective the connection between technology, (social) progress and art in the broadest sense and thus offers a field of experimentation for future, present and imagination.

In today's world, the extraordinary is the norm. We only react instead of acting proactively, the extraordinary permeating our lives and numbing our ability to react.  The news reads more fantastically than comic books, and so it seems no coincidence that in recent years there has been an increase in science fiction productions that propose varying perspectives on future bodies, identities, cultures, architecture, everyday life, and social and political structures. From today's perspective, they allow a different view into the future and vice versa – a different lens on the past. And so the future, as unattainable as it is, serves as a gigantic projection screen for countless "what if”-scenarios.

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In the meantime, we are living in a high-tech reality in which the boundaries between man and machine are becoming increasingly blurred. In our smart homes, we surround ourselves with virtual acquaintances, while physical space continues to dissolve, entire regions become deserted and uninhabitable not only for the human species; the forecasts for our planet are alarming with dwindling biodiversity and accelerated extinction of species. With the worldwide resurgence of populism, nationalism and right-wing thinking, several questions arise at once: Where are we right now? Haven't we been here before? Haven't these movements and ideologies failed completely in two world wars? Utopian or dystopian stories―like the works of science fiction author Philip K. Dick― show us that no matter to which degree technologies evolve, ways of thinking, dynamics of private or social relationships, forms of collective thought and action do not change. Since it can be difficult to gain enough distance from current themes and traumata to analyze and comment on them. Utopian or dystopian designs for the future, always anchored in their own present, process traumata of the "now." And sometimes they come frighteningly close to the "real" future.

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Supported by 48 Stunden Neukölln Festival and Bezirksamt Neukölln Fachbereich Kultur

Photos: Erman Torun