Future of What

• The Future of What
•  Artist(s) Mariko Kuwahara & Rosa Sijben Text by Chiara Nuzzi
• Exhibition; 15/12/2017- 13/1/2017
• Opening: 15/12/2017 6-10 pm

Teotwawki: [ti.ɑt.wɑk.i] is acronym for “The End of the World as We Know It”

For this episode of Teotwawki, we leave it to the artists to decide to work on the topic of their choice. What is the most important thing to consider about future? Or do we even have to do it? Following the questions about The Future of What they came to consider what would happen if there was no one left? And what about the objects that humanity will leave behind? Will they keep the purpose we had projected on them or will have new ones?

Mariko Kuwahara is a Dutch/Japanese artist based in Amsterdam. In 2015 she went to Onishi, Gunma prefecture, in Japan, to collect stories surrounding the blue stones called “Sanbaseki”, which are used as decoration for Japanese gardens. Thanks to the booming stone business in Japan between the 60s and 80s, the city as well as some of its stone dealers became extremely wealthy. Although the popularity of the stones has waned, you can still find many blue stones along the streets and in front of peoples houses .Marko is currently doing a residency in Yubari, former mining town in Hokkaido for a project on sculptures made out of coal. On the opening of The Future of What there will be a Skype talk on her proceedings.

Chiara Nuzzi is a curator and researcher based between Belgium and Italy. Her research revolves around the topic of collectivity, focusing on the relations occurring between art and society. For this exhibition she contributed with a text that focusses on the role of the object and objectivity. She reflects on our commodity-ruled society wondering about the role of art objects in it and questions how these dynamics may shift.

Rosa Sijben uses sculptures, installations and performative means in her artistic practice, which deals with the social and aesthetic aspects of objects and actions, and makes you reconsider their respective nature. For The Future of What she made new pieces where the visitors should visit the house of the holder to see them. These pieces were out of objects whose original purpose was to carry and protect another object. She questions what happens to objects when they revive in a different context, a different material and when they are protected.