The group exhibition “The Somatist, The Entropist & The Skeptic”, a research project and artistic production of the Qolony Association, recently opened at Residența 9.
Located at the intersection of art, science, and technology, the exhibition “The Somatist, The Entropist & The Skeptic” presents “the habits of using common technologies and emphasizes how we consent and actively participate in the production of future directions of development of our culture and routine of our daily lives. The concepts behind the project are centered on researching the dynamics between control and its lack, on questioning our ability to act on the world, on technology, on nature, on species and the biases that derive from them.” (excerpt from the presentation text of the exhibition)
Through interactive installations, the artists Floriama Cândea, Sabina Suru, and Cătălin Crețu, together with Cristian Balaș (programmer), explore people’s reactions to new technologies at a physical, psychological and relational level.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to interact with current technologies of capturing physiological data or machine learning technologies for real-time animation of kinetic works, algorithmic sounds, or generative video works.
Floriama Cândea‘s working instruments include several methods and techniques. In general, both her concepts and working processes use the aesthetics of scientific images and scientific research tools that can be converted into artistic practices – decellularization, production of biocompatible materials, and chemical processes. Her works question how memory, cognition, perception, and taxonomy are triggered as mechanisms in the subjective relationship between man and the natural world, between reality and fiction.
Sabina Suru is a multimedia artist and cultural manager. Her projects focus on the relationship between applied arts (analog and alternative photography, photo-object, video, and interactive installation) and scientific practices (optics, physics, holography). Her works question the conditions of the appearance of the image in the context of the instrumented vision and, finally, of the fictional/technological identity. The aim is to negotiate connections between dissociated fields, giving issues related to identity mutation, objectification, exographic memory, and time, through collaborations with other artists and practitioners in various fields, such as scientific research, contemporary dance, music, and speculative research.
Cătălin Creţu is a multimedia artist, scientific researcher at the Center for Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia and associate professor of the National University of Music in Bucharest, member of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania, and executive director of the InnerSound Festival of New Arts. His artistic creation includes works ranging from chamber music, and choral and symphonic opposites to electronic music, computer-assisted music, installations, and multimedia works.
Qolony Association – Colony for Art and Science is a cultural association that functions as an aggregator of a mixed community of professionals of different disciplines, from contemporary artists, scientific researchers, and specialists in various technologies, united by the passion for interdisciplinary practices and for the creativity they generate. The association’s projects are aimed at the importance of collaborative practices, both for stimulating creativity and personal development, as well as for the current and future well-being of society.
The exhibition can be visited until December 20, from Tuesday to Friday between 4-8 p.m, respectively Saturday and Sunday between 1-8 p.m On Mondays and public holidays, Residența 9 is closed. Admission is free.
The project is co-funded by AFCN.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the project results can be used. They are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
Research partners: National Institute of Research and Development for Materials Physics
Cultural partners: BRD Scena9 Residency, SIMULTAN Festival, Malmaison Workshops, CESI – Center of Excellence in Image Study, VAGon – Space in(ter)disciplined.
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Tanănana, Adevărul, Revista Atelierul, Cultartes, Curatorial, IQAds, Mindcraft Stories, Observator Cultural, Propagarta, Psychologies, Scena 9, Spotmedia, The Institute, Zile şi Nopţi, Munteanu.
