Survival in the 21st Century

The exhibition project SURVIVAL IN THE 21st CENTURY explores the foundations of life in the age of the polycrisis.

Developed by Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen in close cooperation with the Deichtorhallen, the exhibition incorporates elementary questions of ecology, technology and spirituality. The "School of Survival" expands the about 40 international artistic positions and turns the exhibition venue into a learning space for the future.

SURVIVAL IN THE 21st CENTURY focuses on fundamental questions of human existence. It reflects on the radical disruptions we face: climate change, the digital revolution, growing injustice on a national and global scale, the crisis of democracy and the question of community. The elaborate exhibition with numerous multimedia installations and an exhibition architecture designed by Bundschuh Architekten demonstrates how cultural survival requires new cultural practices.

In a radically complex world, fundamental questions are posed differently and anew: how can we manage, build and live differently, eat differently, use technology differently for people, how can we learn from non-Western societies, how can human and non-human coexistence be organized differently, how can ecology become a comprehensive lesson, how can we change our political processes and institutions so that they become more transparent, more direct, more democratic?

The exhibition aims to make world concepts accessible beyond artistic practice. It is a social offer to learn together and from each other as a constructive public - in workshops, lectures and continuously through the seminar-like educational program of the "School of Survival" also in the city. The exhibition house will become a kind of school for the new century, which sees and embraces the changes in education and learning as essential. Art is the medium, and survival is the goal.

With works by Panteha Abareshi, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Yalda Afsah, Abbas Akhavan, Assemble & AAU Anastas, Mohamed Bourouissa, Andrea Bowers, James Bridle, Julian Charrière, Sam Chermayeff Office, Edith Dekyndt, Simon Denny, Cao Fei, Liam Gillick, Lubaina Himid, Kablusiak (BFA ‘16, Drawing), Leon Kahane, Paul Kolling, Sharon Lockhart, Goshka Macuga, Taus Makhacheva, Jota Mombaça, Shaun Motsi, New Red Order (NRO), Olaf Nicolai, Christelle Oyiri, Céline Pagès, Trevor Paglen, Grayson Perry, Shlomo Pozner, Bruno Serralongue, Jeremy Shaw, Charles Stankievech, Thomas Struth, Ron Terada, Emmanuel Van der Auwera, Syrus Marcus Ware.

 

Curators: Georg Diez and Nicolaus Schafhausen

Research Curators: Lena Baumgartner und Frances Fürst