Invocation for Hope

A new commission by SUPERFLUX

In this immersive installation, commissioned by the MAK exclusively for the VIENNA BIENNALE FOR CHANGE 2021, Superflux transports visitors into a vision of a post-anthropocentric future no longer determined by humans alone.

In cooperation with the forestry office and fire department of Austria's Neunkirchen region, the designers are bringing several hundred trees recently burnt in a forest fire into the MAK. As visitors walk through the burnt and blackened forest of trees, they notice how their skeletal remains gracefully return their fertility to the earth around them. On arriving at a clearing, a glistening pool invites visitors to observe their reflections in the water, alongside those of many other species on the planet.

This evocative installation provides an opportunity to reflect on our fragile, closely networked relationship with the natural world—an opportunity to imagine strategies that go beyond merely human concerns, based on regeneration, redistribution, and rewilding.

The project is so designed that all the installation’s components will have an afterlife to neutralize its CO2 footprint.

28.5.2021—3.10.2021

Lower Exhibition Hall

Curators

Curator:

Marlies Wirth

Curatorial Assistence:
Antje Prisker

A project by Superflux

Head:
Anab Jain, Jon Ardern

Team:
Ed Lewis, Florian Semlitsch, Niccolo Fioritti, Eva Tausig, Lizzie Crouch, Leanne Fischler, Nicola Ferrao, Matt Edgson

Soundscape:
Cosmo Sheldrake

Motion Design:
Michele Vannoni and Dimitris Papadimitriou

INVOCATION FOR HOPE, A new commission by Superflux, Superflux, One of Superflux’s early prototypes for conceiving a resurgent forest

This project is part of CreaTures EU. CreaTures has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 870759. The content presented represents the views of the authors, and the European Commission has no liability in respect of the content.