“While the Vertebrae of Time Continue to Spin” presents recent works by Gillian Brett, Taisia Korotkova, and Arseny Zhilyaev, which examine the ever-intensifying relationship between current technologies and the future of humanity. The group show is structured around diverse utopian narratives, revealing paradoxes and contrasts inherent in human interactions with technology. These utopian visions provide a semiotic framework for critical insights, cultivating a retrofuturist aesthetic that traverses the realms of inter-species dynamics and post-human possibilities.
Telescopes in orbit, screens, and artificial intelligence emerge as iconic sources, simultaneously serving as catalysts for initiating critical reflection on an era marked by the emergence of new modes of space exploration, accelerationism, accumulation, pollution, and social disparity.
Exploring the non-linearity of time and corrugating chronological distances, “While the Vertebrae of Time Continue to Spin” draws its inspiration from Osip Mandelstam’s depiction of the interconnected vertebrae of two centuries in his 1923 poem Vek (The Century). Echoing the visionary sentiments of the poet’s words, this exhibition revisits the perennial question concerning the difficulties of reconciling the past and the future—a task shared by both the artist and poet.
Curated by:
Alessandra Franetovich
Partecipating artists: Gillian Brett, Taisia Korotkova, Arseny Zhilyaev
at C+N Canepaneri, Genoa
until December 5, 2023