Installationsansicht
“Everyone push again!” Roman Keller calls out to the guests in Kunsthalle Arbon. Christina Hemauer whirls past those present: “we’ll break it yet“, she surmises optimistically. Then she places her hands on the reinforced concrete and, joining the others, pushes with all her might. In fact, it is the installation “The State of Hope” – the centrepiece and namesake of the exhibition – which is supposed to be broken.
In concrete terms, what we are dealing with here is a 25 metre-long reinforced concrete beam, stored on a rolling trestle. Hemauer and Keller aim to break this colossus using the physical strength of the audience gathered for the vernissage. They want to show what humans are capable of. A crack rings out. The concrete fractures.
Force of nature from human hands
“Actually, the exhibition focuses on the power of humanity over nature”, explains Deborah Keller, the curator who has brought the artistic duo to Arbon. “Today it’s clear that human activity is having an impact on our planet and, for example, influences weather phenomena. Maybe it’s about time we found a replacement for the term ‘force of nature’”?
The idea that humankind influences its environment has been circulating for some time now. Almost 20 years ago a small not uncontroversial group even decided that the dawn of a new geochronological era could be identified. The age in which humankind has a direct biological, geological and atmospheric impact on the destinies of our planet was labelled “Anthropocene”.
Changing the colour of the sky
Whether the artists really want to saddle themselves with the term “Anthropocene” is an open question. However, they certainly share the notion that humans interfere in the world on a massive scale. “It’s clear that humans have already changed the blueness of the sky. Insanity!” says Christina Hemauer. And Roman Keller ambiguously adds, “clearly we have the power for changes”. […]
Dorothee Haarer, Force of nature from human hands, St. Galler Tagblatt, August 26, 2016
20.8. – 25.9.2016
Kunsthalle Arbon
Grabenstrasse 6, 9320 Arbon