The Impossibility of an Island

November 10, 2017
Kunstmuseum Bonn, Auditorium
Within TBA21–Academy's Open Ocean Space x COP23
In conjunction with the UN Climate Change Conference COP23
Bonn, Germany

‘The Impossibility of an Island’ brings together a selection of artists’ films addressing the human-made planetary destruction through geographically distant stories, deeply connected by two major liquid forces: oil and water. One narrative addresses the rising level of planetary waters that is quickly erasing lands and coastlines, forcing entire communities to migrate, as well as the destructive consequences of plastic and other debris drifting throughout the ocean’s surface. The second addresses the issue of fossil fuels, whose massive extraction is running geology backwards by bringing a substance to the surface, that took the planet millions of years to bury, and whose combustion is reinserting polluting elements into the atmosphere at unprecedented speed. Oil and water as liquid forces equally connect and divide peoples and territories on the physical, economical and social level. They set the basis of modern narratives of conquest and colonization, and ultimately shape the intangible battlefield of a struggle for the increasingly scarce resources on the planet.

Artists

Ursula Biemann, Isabelle Hayeur, Michelle Claire Gevint, New Mineral Collective (Tanya Busse and Emilija Škarnulytė), Sara Tirelli, Fiona Tan