(Cordoba, Spain)
‘Abundant Futures in Troubled Times’ is an essay exhibition curated by Daniela Zyman that presents and formulates a daring attempt to imagine worldmaking and ecological futures from the condition of abundance and fullness. It places a wealth of artistic visions and propositions from TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary’s collection into the conversation, gesturing at the multiplicity of worlds humans and nonhumans cohabit, a world of many worlds.
The participating artists are Ai Weiwei, Allora & Calzadilla, Dana Awartani, Claudia Comte, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Elena Damiani, Olafur Eliasson, Haris Epaminonda, Mario García Torres, Isa Genzken, Helen Mayer Harrison & Newton Harrison, Mathilde ter Heijne, Camille Henrot, Ann Veronica Janssens, Miler Lagos, Sarah Lucas, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Ana Mendieta, Regina de Miguel, Beatriz Milhazes, Asunción Molinos Gordo, Paulo Nazareth, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Olaf Nicolai, Plata con Semillas Silvestres I Belén Rodríguez I Víctor Barrios, Diana Policarpo, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Matthew Ritchie, Thomas Ruff, Bernardo Salcedo, Tomás Saraceno, Teresa Solar, Simon Starling, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Thomas Struth, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Janaina Tschäpe, Susanne M. Winterling, Cerith Wyn Evans, Xie Lei, Yeo Siew Hua, Heimo Zobernig
Focusing on abundance is a matter of ontology, ethics, and ecological thought. Art, culture, and education join together to advance and reformulate ecological and visionary practices, which shape our experiences of the world. They occupy spaces for the rehearsal of social, ecological, and artistic/poetic scenarios that can alter human interaction with the planet and allow new forms of conviviality to emerge. Rehabilitating the abundance of possibilities after an age of austerity will have to be cultivated and socially enacted. It promises sufficiency and rubs against the always-limited and limiting temptations of prosperity and affluence, which are fundamentally materialistic and extractive.
Abundant Futures is both a visionary and somewhat paradoxical proposition. It is radically antithetical to the catastrophic predictions that define future conditions on earth. But scarcity and austerity have insinuated themselves into how we imagine our existence. The mere limitation of means and resources is equaled to scarcity, irrespective of the many possibilities afforded by negotiating and compensating for forms of disruption. Limitedness and abundance might be more consequentially related than we are led to believe. Embracing abundance can lead to a deep experience of the limitedness of human life and planetary survival. Paradoxically, limitation generates fullness, attentiveness, and care.
‘Abundant Futures in Troubled Times’
Oct 19, 2022–Mar 5, 2023
C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía
C/ Carmen Olmedo Checa s/n, 14009, Córdoba
From Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sundays and holidays from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Eviction from the rooms will begin 15 minutes before closing.