UTOPIA DYSTOPIA at PARALLEL Vienna 2024, September 11-15

The Voyager mission in 1977 attempted to gain knowledge about the planetary system and interstellar space and to establish contact with extraterrestrial life forms in order to inform them of the existence of humanity. A record with greetings in 55 languages and sounds of the earth was sent along with instructions for playing it.

For PARALLEL Vienna 2024, we are equipping our exhibition as a spaceship. As with the Voyager mission, images and news from our times and past times are transported into the future.

Let's imagine that people of the future or alien life forms encounter the Voyager probes or our spacecraft. Would the cultural property found be recognized as such and how would it be understood? Would it be seen as evidence of intelligence and creativity, a gesture of friendship, colonial intent, or evidence of a gradual path to ruin? Would one recognize that in 1977 and 2024, respectively, the industrial age and the utopias of modernity still had a significant influence on the way of life of many people and the policies of various systems of power? Would one find posthumanist ideas and criticism of transhumanism here and an attempt to address impending dystopias?

This exhibition holds a mirror up to us and discusses concepts of what it means to be human. Different time perspectives are part of our concept. Thinking spaces for possible presents and futures are opened up.

UTOPIA DYSTOPIA at PARALLEL Vienna 2024, September 11-15

photo courtesy of PARALLEL Vienna

PARALLEL Vienna 2024 art fair, 11.-15. September 2024