NONHUMAN
2020. 02. 21. – 03.06.
Exhibiting Artists:
Tamás Eiter, Mátyás Fusz, Adrián Klájó, Tibor Kovács, Sándor Körei, Eszter Júlia Kuzma, Anna Peternák, Loránd Szécsényi-Nagy, Zoltán Vadászi and Adrienn Újházi

Curators: Dorka Keresztury, Róbert Lak and Zsófi Máté

Opening: February 21, 2020. Friday 19:00
Sounds: OOO

The automatization of everyday life and planetary meltdown all show that human-centric approaches to ecology, society and culture have become unsustainable. No longer can agency be restricted to the human. Communication networks, underground cables and artificial microparticles are all now a part of nature. The complexity of reality means that we cannot access things without the mediation of technology. Is Art, as something implicitly connected with an Artist or Creator, also out of date? In the post-anthropocentric era, can art have anything important to say about reality? The NONHUMAN exhibition is based on the recognition of the obsolescence of human artforms.
Every art object on display here is, in its own way, a variation on the theme of posthuman art. The goal of these objects is not representation or self-expression. There is no self to express. Rather, the function of nonhuman art is the creation of networks, meshes and flows in which human and nonhuman participants can co-create. No longer is any Creator needed. It is an impersonal process of decentered, spontaneous creation which takes center stage here. The artists are notable for their absence. Through the practice of nonhuman art, we recognize retrospectively that art was always already a complex combination of techniques, surfaces, materialities, tools and humans. The success of art depends on the coordination and harmonization of a wide range of agencies, not all of which are under the control of the artist. In spite of its negative connotation, „nonhuman” art need not estrange us to the potentials of these works. Creation is a sensual experience of blending with something else, something different from us. As the monotony of techno connects us into the electronic waves of music, so we may achieve a non-reflexive connection with our synthetic, more-than-human environment by experiencing this exhibition.
(Botond Szemes)

Program:
March 6th, 2020: Friday 18:00
The Nonhuman Turn in Art – A Talk with the members of the Poli-P posthuman research group