MO_MEN_TUM

Wholes subscend their parts, which means that parts are not just mechanical components of wholes, and that there can be genuine surprise and novelty in the world, that different future is always possible.
Timothy Morton

The public intervention MO_MEN_TUM for the Art Festival Gasträume20 in Zürich addresses material transformations that are induced not only physically, but also socially and politically.
The material world is in constant change. Movements that progress in different time frames, from temporary vibrations to sedimentation over millions of years. Some humans have mastered the extraction and circulation of matter as well as its transformation into raw materials. Built environments, where material formations act as products and infrastructure, are bound to different temporalities and pose questions about their transience and agency within worldly constellations. The ontological relevance of material manifestations and the influence this has on social systems and geopolitical relations are notions that are embedded in this process-oriented piece.
Shaped in pressed sand into a monumental, architectural form, the construction mor- phs in constant interaction with its environment, with mechanic and climatic forces that act with it. It stands emblematically for the power of the public and the ecosystem to take over and transform what has solidified and responds in that sense to the current discussions around mundane histories and how they are remembered in monuments. The selection of images shows different stages documented during the process by a photo trap camera, the security agency responsible to monitor the works of the festival, and other individuals that took pictures of the work.

Gasträume 20, Art in the Public, Zürich, June - September 2020

Soundperformance during the opening on 27/06/20 with Nicolas Buzzi & Daniel V. Keller