Contra-Natura

About

Contra-Natura reflects on the contradictions and divisions of political systems and economic models that defy notions of sustainability, renewable energy, and the equilibrium between different ecosystems. It's true that in most cases human beings commit actions that unbalance nature, creating an "anthropic system," which is constituted by a series of elements that goes hand-in-hand with society's technological, urban, industrial, and cultural developments.

As such, man has turned into the dominant force of change in the planet, surpassing the importance that geophysical forces had, until now, in shaping the biosphere. This new geological era is often called "Anthropocene." Within the context of this transformation, a new way to work with matter both critically and experimentally has emerged. Named "Molecular Aesthetics," its application in art enables an understanding of matter at another level. Moreover, we find microscopic observations, structures of subatomic links, and applications of nanotechnology in different fields of scientific knowledge. Models of industrial design, architectural edifices, and artistic manifestations are some of the procedures that have found inspiration in these molecular studies. For example, the Bauhaus incorporated industrial materials in the production of unique works of art, such as media paintings and kinetic sculptures. 

In this case, the exhibition is a project of creation that establishes a series of confronting relationships between the exhibited artworks and the curatorial proposal. This reasoning signals processes of substitution and replacement of organic life. Contra-Natura might be understood as a persistent dichotomic relationship in a world in which avatars are now a reality. It is not only discursive, as it can also be applied to social and political spheres, something that can be identified in the wide range of natures that are modified, altered, and substituted by synthetic mutations. 

The access to scientific sources can extend our notions of functionality and how matter has been reasoned. We can now represent and interpret it as an agglomerate of molecules that allows us to produce different innovations and experimentations.

This situation has changed the formats that describe an artwork. In the context of an exhibition of contemporary art, poetic metaphor and historical literality have found in this field of creating an alternative format of writing, one that does not pretend to displace the importance of the legacy of different artistic movements. On the contrary, the molecular revolution allows us to reconfigure history and understand it from different spatiotemporal views. 

The works presented invite the spectator to draw connections and interpretations that precede the threshold of historical reference. In this manner, it is possible to expand the contemplative experience of the viewer. Technology allows us to surpass the constraints that human vision can’t categorize or visualize. The transcendence of these perceptive limitations is an alternative mode of understanding the dimension we’re immersed in. 

Our historical condition, whether we like it or not, changes everything. Our current economic logic isn’t working, as we’re facing potentially infinite costs in a planetary scale. The transition to a planetary civilization is a project that will assume a catalyzing role in the direction toward change in the public and social awareness of institutions. 

Contra-Natura offers to the viewer a group of creations that manifest relations between various states of micro and macro. This disposition of elements implies a systematic balance and organization that have contributed to methodologies of artistic investigation in the last decades. The action of crossing and traversing different disciplines is one of the conceptual elements that the curating attempts to promote.