Foreshadowing

The exhibition conjoins elements that foreshadow possible developments, thoughts and suggestions pertaining to a speculative future.

The term “foreshadowing” functioned as a working title for the participating artists. Rooted in the world of literature, it involves a sense of expectation and prediction, a hint to the existence of narratives or events that are yet to surface. The reader might not recognize this hint on first reading, in which case it will be revealed as such only in retrospect. The term and its meanings accompanied the artists in their research of the signs, symbols, images, and objects on which they focused as a means for proposing future scenarios in the social, political, ecological, technological, and biographical fields.

The works reside on two separate but interwoven timelines. One relates to the near future, while the other deals with the remains that we will leave behind and the thought of what future archaeologists will discover about us; which evidence, hints, and objects will help them study us. The two timelines seek to create a new perspective on a temporary present, an alternative picture through which we can examine this present in real time and investigate what the future has in store for us.

The conceptual measures in the exhibition draw inspiration from the artistic-technological Futurism movement that originated in Italy in the early twentieth century. The Futurists imagined a non-distant future and responded to it: they incorporated practices from the worlds of art and design, and addressed technological advancements while considering the future society that will be affected by them. Whereas the Futurists looked toward the technological future ahead, the exhibition artists already exist in this future, and are dealing with its consequences. Some criticize it and others try to break free of it, striving to return to the corporality of the material.

The artists of “Foreshadowing” are early-career graduates of art and design academies. The title of the exhibition alludes to the mixture of its participants as heralds of future trends that we can expect to appear in the local fields of art and design.