Robo Švarc: Art of the Anthropocene

Kde?

• Room D277

  • (Drotárska, second floor)

When?

• Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 10:00 AM

Annotation:

The lecture will provide an overview of key issues surrounding the concept of the Anthropocene, exploring the complex interconnections between biological, climatic, social, and cultural dynamics. Numerous examples from architecture, design, artivism, painting, sculpture, environmental installations, and performance art will be presented.

The term “Anthropocene” is increasingly recognized across natural sciences, humanities, and the arts as a designation for a new geochronological epoch. Following the relatively stable Holocene, we now enter a period in which human activity is altering the quality of the atmosphere, water, and geological substrates. One pressing phenomenon of the Anthropocene is the sixth mass extinction, with one species disappearing from Earth approximately every seven minutes. The Anthropocene is a crystallizing process, accelerating the transformation of systems that took billions of years to form.

The Anthropocene discourse in art gained visibility with the Das Anthropozän-Projekt exhibition at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin (2013-14). This marked the emergence of critical artistic approaches seeking alternative modes of life, including various strands of new materialism and trans- or post-humanist theory. Often interdisciplinary, these hybrid forms challenge traditional intellectual frameworks and models of the world. They reflect the call of Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe, who argues for a redistribution of methodologies across all disciplines to address the question of life on this planet, warning that without such integration, disciplinary boundaries may no longer hold meaning.

About Robo Švarc

Robo Švarc (*1983, Bratislava) is a visual artist, curator, author, and translator. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and multimedia projects both in Slovakia and internationally. He studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 2021, he curated the year-long multidisciplinary festival Beuys will be Beuys at the Goethe-Institut in Bratislava and contributed to the dramaturgy and performance of The Invisible Guest (KIOSK Žilina, 2021). That same year, he published Non Exit and translated Milo Rau’s The Congo Tribunal. He is currently working on a translation of Florian Malzacher’s The Art of Assembly: Current Political Theatre.

Photo Credit: Terezie Foldynová