What do we have in common? With each other, with our past selves, but most importantly, what will connect us with future generations? In this day and age full of political turmoil and ecological uncertainty, is it worth brooding over what it means to rely-on and to lend a hand to some body? Formalized by Timothy Morton and Donna Haraway, the concept of symbiosis in itself defines no entity as self-standing, we are all complementary to an other being. Though it is unclear which is the top symbiont, and which is the parasite, humans and the microbiomes inhabit the same space, and have to learn to share. This co-dependent reliance, found all around us, and deeply rooted in our own species’ evolution, is defined as solidarity. “The word describes a state of physical and political organization, and it describes a feeling.” (Morton, 2017)

Let’s Talk About Tomorrow brings together works by contemporary artists Beatriz Creel, Liselotte Klint, Sara Rodrigues and Panicattack Duo collective. Hosted at No Format gallery in South East London, the show unravels in a visual installation of Beatriz’s The Land That Does Not Yet Exist, with her The New Humanity video (2017) as a dystopian manifesto addressed to the ‘new humanity’. Land that does not yet exist is a sculpture of steel representing an abstract form of a land that could exist in the future. This land is a place where everything is ideal, where the ‘new humanity’ has found plenitude.

This intention is complemented by Sara Rodrigues’ first chapters of the documentary Deptford Lives: every day is a good day. Incited by her co-producer John Price, owner of El Cheap ‘Ou, Sara embarked on a discovery of Deptford’s lasting residents and shop owners, an array of individuality which comments on contemporary community-making, and our ability to bond, beyond our kin, beyond appearance, commonality, age-gap and background. What does it mean to have social governance? How can our relations on the individual level impact the local and the global? 

Liselotte Klint’s Square Studies performance (2018) maps out a micro-cosmos of interrelations and internal collisions. The performers are given a set of parameters: a physical space, time, psycho-social behavioural parameters and a reflexive disruptive element. Armed, they interact with each other and themselves, evolving into abstracted metaphors, zooming into personal dialogues, and zooming out into a mini-society of molecules, behaving as a dysfunctional hive.  

Panic bugs, Panicattack Duo’s new performance (2018) takes the form of a contemporary reimagining of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The artists rely-on each other, and through each other they uncover an array of millennial angsts and artistic anxieties. You are taken on a sonic journey of self-enquiry, with echoes of aimlessness, time currency and ethical agency.

“Solidarity restarts temporality. Solidarity means being freed from one’s being caught in the past and to have entered a vibrant nowness in which the future opens.” (Morton, 2017) The exhibition continues to 1 July, and you are invited to explore the inhabiting installations of Beatriz Creel’s manifestos to humanity, and Sara Rodrigues’ score of How Or How Not To Become A We, and various sound recordings of the performative attempts. The latter was born out of a collective residency, and explores how to understand and be understood when caught up between oral language, known vocabulary, culture, taste, genetic predisposition, context, willingness, personality traits, and interests.

Beatriz Creel, “A Land That Does Not Yet Exist” http://www.cxrxexexl.com

Beatriz Creel is an artist originally from Ciudad de Mexico, now based in London. She is a communicologist and a visual artist currently on the MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths. She believes that the possibilities of art lie within our limitations. Her intention is to contribute to the reinvention of the current conception of the world and change the way in which we live and operate, at least by proposing a better version of humanity. By creating ludic and interactive pieces of art, the artist expects to incite a dialogue within the public. The spectators become part of the piece by their actions and interactions.

Panicattack Duo, “Panic Bugs” https://panicattack-duo.squarespace.com

Panicattack Duo is a performance art collective, Emily Demetriou (Nicosia, Cyprus) and Naz Balkaya (Istanbul, Turkey), currently based in London. Both experiencing the embodiment of migration and exchanging ideas consistently with excitement, as well as a common social feminist understanding was what evoked the beginning of their collaboration. Their nations, religions and societies would say that they are meant to be enemies. Their ideas, beliefs, habits and views state the opposite; therefore, they embrace the concept of separation through their collaborative efforts.

Liselotte Klint, “Square Studies” www.liselotteklint.dk

Liselotte Klint is an artist originally from Copenhagen, now based in London. She is currently on the MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths. The common denominator of her practice is an interest in human behavior, especially in relation to social and psychological dynamics.

Sara Rodrigues, “How Or How Not To Become A We”; “Deptford Lives” http://www.sara-rodrigues.com

Sara Rodrigues is an interdisciplinary artist working in audiovisual composition, performance and research. She is currently on her MFA at Goldsmiths and is co-director of the New Maker Ensemble in London, having previously studied sculpture and installation, as well as contemporary composition and sonic art. Working with malleable and open structures, her pieces often attempt to understand complex issues by dissecting them into fragments, conducting action-prompting questions and interviews within determinate outcomes. Sara conceives her work as a place for experimentationand practice-led discovery, with an ever-growing sociopolitical interest.

Private view: Thursday 28 June, 5-9pm

Panicattack Duo’s Panic Bugs performance, 5pm

LiselotteKlint’s Square Studies performance, 6pm

Facebook event: RSVP here.