As a project of the New Museum of Networked Art – “The 4 Ecologists” also belong in the context of the retrospective of “animateC – Cologne Art & Animation Festival” on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Museum of Networked Art and the first complete presentation of the Anthropocene Project, which deals with the influence of humans on their environment, reflected in climate change, the destruction of natural resources and escalating social, political and cultural tensions. All of this can be found in the work of these four artists and the more than 80 videos. Represented by 20 individual videos each, the project is also a retrospective of their artistic work since 2010, which also reflects the development of animation over the past 15 years.
The artists go through a development of content in their work. While Silvia de Gennaro’s videos thematically address the impending catastrophe by showing the ecology of violence and identifying the patriarchal power structures of society as its cause, Maria Korporal goes a step further, because in her videos the patriarchy of the male gender has already been abolished. She sees the future of our planet in women all over the world taking on responsibility. Susanne Wiegner goes the next step further. In the videos, which are characterized by a gloomy end-time mood and whose special feature lies in the visual implementation of Robert Lax’s literary poetry, people have completely disappeared from the scene. Only the legacy of its status symbols reminds us of the human civilization whose self-destructive arrogance sealed the fate of humanity. Brit Bunkley, the only male artist, is no less harsh in his treatment of patriarchy, because he takes the next step in his videos by showing that the civilization that follows humanity – the animals, taking on the arrogance of humans, is also doomed to destruction, while life, unaffected by this, follows its own evolution.
Overall, however, the artistic works do not pass a completely devastating judgement on humanity and its destructive influence on planet Earth. There is always the hope that the catastrophe can still be averted somehow or, if it is unavoidable, that the survivors will come to their senses and be given another chance.
Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, curator
