When Worlds Collide. International Festival Platform / Art – Technology – Science
6–28 November 2013
Curators / Selectors: Aleksandra Kostič, Nina Jeza, Jože Slaček, Maja Smrekar, Saša Spačal, Robertina Šebjanič, Ida Hiršenfelder, Marianne Wagner
Artists: Kathy High (US) Nitsan Hoorgin, Julian Ruiz, Inbal Cohen (IL) Maša Jazbec (SI) Karl Heinz Jeron (DE) Yuri Klebanov, Roi Ronn (IL) Oscar Martin (ES) Tiago Martins, R. Nascimento, A. Zingerle (PR) Tiago Martins, Vesela Mihaylova (PT) Ricardo O’Nascimento (ES) Eva Petrič (SI) Vojko Pogačar (SI) Dragana Sapanjoš (HR) Theresa Schubert (DE) Doron Segal, Jenny Bahar, Itay Kurgan, Shahar Yacoby (IL) Ortotip (SI) Maja Smrekar (SI) Saša Spačal, Mirjan Švagelj, Snil Podgornik (SI) Zoran Srdić Janežič (SI) Robertina Šebjanič, Aleš Hieng – Zergon (SI) MFRU Hyper Film (SI) MFRU Femina Archive (SI)
Concept by Ida Hiršenfelder, Maja Smrekar, Robertina Šebjanič, Saša Spačal: un_NATURAL
If animals did not exist, the nature of man would be even more incomprehensible. — Georges-Louis Buffon
The contents of this year’s festival KIBLIX 2013 – WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE concern some representative levels, which we tried to encompass in a concept entitled un_NATURAL. Our stand towards the selected contents transcends the nature-culture dualism, because we wish to use it to widen the view that deconstructs some of the norms related to the participatory understanding of various life forms, which is why we want to evoke – inside numerous constructed social imperatives – a reflection on the interdisciplinary possibilities for the (co)existence of bios and techne.
Because we perceive nature as an interdisciplinary field of biological, cultural and social phenomena, we wish to provide the concept of “unnatural” with a broader mental frame, inside which it receives a new understanding and different emphases. Here, art and humanism are present in the choice of viewpoint; in an interdisciplinary perspective on the interaction between concepts of natural and unnatural.
The so-called “biophobic” paradigms trigger a number of interpretations that can in turn lead to the formation of different ideologies. The artistic goal in this case is not merely related to the scientific research of biological phenomena, but mainly to a requestioning of the concept and paradigms concerning the attitude towards nature through a broader (social) perspective. On the other hand these issues, from a post-anthropocentric perspective, inspire a consideration about the context of temporal dimensions, inside which, among other things, we can ask ourselves about the (non)existence of our own species in the broadest sense. The thinking frame outside the area where natural and unnatural imperatives are accompanied by a fear of the unknown is therefore leaning towards examining ways of co-existence with different phenomena of the living.