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The days when owls had fallen from the sky
Always dependent on electricity, emitting light and heat, they attract us. If they are portable and ergonomic, they change our gestures, thus becoming our prostheses. Designed as rectangular frames, they inherit the past of painting canvases and present themselves as relational windows. They connect like luminous nodes at the borders of a vast network—as a panoptic constellation to which we surrender.
We hardly look eye to eye. Mainly we look indirectly and delayed at each other. We have almost got used to the metallic sound of speakers and microphones. In pandemic times, living the health systems’ chaos—intensified by the absence of public policies—that unveils immense social ills, sleep is non-existent or excessive. It has not come and is already gone. For some people, it is an unwieldly sensation. Sleep is the last frontier, as wrote Jonathan Crary in 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. Under the night sky, the desire to dive into the darkness of deep sleep may be vivid for those bodies able to sleep and escape the lights, but this is not for everyone.
Desire is needed, instead of only celebrating the hallucination of presence. We need to desire and surpass the addiction helplessness and vulnerability of being dragged by devices. In our daily loop, immersed in this economy of attention, The days when owls had fallen from the sky is an exhibition curated by Elaine Tedesco and Marina Polidoro hosted at Verter as part of The Wrong Biennale. It presents ten propositions developed by artists that critically address our contemporary context, approaching devices and digital networks, spaces of control, trans-media, as well as escape, sleep, and dream possibilities.
The exhibition title is an excerpt from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick. The book—later adapted to Blade Runner—tells the story of an android hunter in a wasteland covered by radioactive dust. Both the book and the movie are dystopic views on technology and the future of life on Earth. Here is the complete fragment:
"For a long time he stood gazing at the owl, who dozed on its perch. A thousand thoughts came into his mind, thoughts about the war, about the days when owls had fallen from the sky; he remembered how in his childhood it had been discovered that species upon species had become extinct and how the 'papes had reported it each day—foxes one morning, badgers the next, until people had stopped reading the perpetual animal obits."
Read in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, it reminds us of the infection and death tolls, in addition to our environmental catastrophe.
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Curators: Elaine Tedesco e Marina Polidoro
Undergraduate students UFRGS: Gabriela Berghahn e Leonardo Cardoso Mafra
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Catalog available (PT/EN): https://www.ufrgs.br/verter/corujas/catalogo.pdf
Artists' talks available (PT): https://youtu.be/0vjL88bTXdk and https://youtu.be/9U3B9zN3XMw
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Information:
Cesar Baio
Padrões Anômalos - Estudo 1
Video, 10’
2019-2021
https://www.cesarbaio.net/
Clarissa Daneluz
Um rosto pede contato / A face asks for contact
Video, 3’25"
2021
@clarissadaneluz
Eduardo Montelli
We are making art
Video, 9’37”
2019
https://cargocollective.com/eduardomontelli
Flavya Mutran
Res_Publicae
Video, 4'
Digital animation with public photographs of former almost presidents of the Republic of Brazil
2021
https://flavyamutran.wordpress.com/
Joana Burd
The_automatas.web
Digital modeling and web programming
Collaborators: Guilherme de Leon, Julia Garcia e Rodrigo Barbosa
2021
https://www.joanaburd.com/
Juliana Angeli
Apepê
NetArt
Made with the apps Reface and Tik Tok, posted by @julianaangeli on Instagram
Editing and gifs: Leonardo Mafra
2021
@julianaangeli
Leo Caobelli
Magnetica (S_01 EP_01)
Magnetica is a project based on magnetic media using electronic waste, edited in obsolete equipment (k7s played in a player with diferent speed, VCRs connected to Edirol-V8 switcher)
2021
leocaobelli.art.br
Letícia Bertagna
Aqui à deriva / Here adrift
NetArt
Collaborator: Rodrigo de Avellar Muniagurria
2021
leticiabertagna.wordpress.com
Lívia Auler
For Barbara
Video, 16’33"
2021
https://www.liviauler.com
Michel Zózimo
A noite azul de Funes / The blue night of Funes
NetArt
after drawing on cotton papel (watercolor pencil and indian ink), 103x140cm
2021
http://www.segaleria.com.br/artista/michel-zozimo/" target="_blank">http://www.segaleria.com.br/artista/michel-zozimo/
Raquel Stolf
lacuna project [aerial listening]
Videos/audios: silences of pond floor, surroundings, and pond/fence.
Excerpt from a collection of silences in process since 2007, in projects involving the production of publications, installations, sound propositions, videos, photographs, notes-drawings of/for listening, and other texts.
Conception, editing: Raquel Stolf
Drone operator: Helder Martinovsky
2013-2021
http://www.raquelstolf.com/
soundcloud.com/raquelstolf
At the top
Gabriela Berghahn
Ínfimo
NetArt (P5.js)
2021
https://gabrielaberghahn.wixsite.com/my-site-2