From the Ashes

The world around is on fire. A figure with a dumbfounded look drinks coffee and says: This is fine. The laugh-out-loud memes, reconciled to the raging apocalypse, are a manifestation of the belief that nature and the human world have the character of the mythical Phoenix, which will always be reborn from the ashes. In many cultures, this fantastical animal was associated with solar deities, meant to symbolise the cyclical nature, immortality and the rebirth of life. For centuries, it has been believed that the Phoenix at the end of its life burns to be born again as a strong bird.

Global environmental crises are undermining the age-old belief in nature as a Phoenix with an infinite capacity for regeneration. As Basque philosopher Michael Marder writes in his book The Phoenix Complex (2023), the belief in rebirth is limiting and conservative, and the hope embodied in it can be dangerous. For it implies that humans do not need to change anything and take drastic steps because nature will fend for itself. Only profound hopelessness can be a motivating factor for radical change.

In the exhibition, we are showing the works created by artistic individuals after 2020, divided into two strands. The first part: Flame is about the reality of multicrisis – climate, economic, social-mediated by media images and the internet. Many of the works use digital aesthetics and were created using new technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D design and robotics. In contrast, the second part Birth shows speculative visions of an ecological-technological future, created in the spirit of ideas of collectivism and post-humanitarian feminism, introducing utopian and solar punk narratives.

artists: Hanna Antonsson, Sara Bezovšek, Justyna Górowska, Ewelina Jarosz, Marcin Janusz, Karolina Jarzębak, Ida Karkoszka, Agata Lankamer, Aleksandra Liput, Julia Lohmann, Antonina Nowacka, Harm (Kasia Piątkowska), Aleksandra Wieliczko, Klara Woźniak, Xphiles (Rafał Domagała, Maja Gomulska, Bartosz Jakubowski, Gabriela Sułkowska), Xtreme Girl (Lena Peplińska, Laura Radzewicz), Ada Zielińska