Konstantinos Doupenidis (Fellow 2020) takes part in the group exhibition «Ruins of an Extreme Present» at Romantso.
What does it mean to exist in an epoch dominated by humans?
‘Ruins of an extreme present’ is a group-exhibition featuring 7 artists/designers and 6 studios whose works interpret, question and react to established political, social, ethical and ecological phenomena.
Using contextual and speculative design as a cultural power, the exhibition imagines dystopian futures and visualizes this strange, liquid present which carries its past and future traumas.
The experience of these great transformations alone causes diverse emotional responses. Further psychological burden is added due to the fact that these global problems become depoliticized and charged on the individuals, leaving them helpless. This gives rise to feelings such as loneliness, loss, grief, doubt, nostalgia, violence, anger, pain and anxiety, the impact of which becomes even more severe in an environment of change and uncertainty.
If we cannot imagine a possible future, how can we invest in it?
We need to use design as a tool for distancing ourselves from our human present and look at its ruins from the future. Once we have achieved that, we need to come back and reinvent the Anthropocene by imagining the new Anthropos. A new de-centred being with a radically different consciousness of coexistence that will take part in a profound re-distribution of power and knowledge.
This new Being does not implicate a resolution by means of yet another kind of Utopia. The hope rather rests on an attempt to create better futures or at least, if we don’t succeed, a more charming ending.
‘Ruins of an Εxtreme Present’
Opening October 15th, 2020 from 18.00-22.00
Opening hours 16-18.10.2020 from 10.00-20.00
Curated by: Un.Processed Realities [instagram.com/un.processedrealities/]
Supported by: KAWRS
Participating Artists: Taxiarchis Balaskas, Baratto & Mouravas, Konstantinos Doumpenidis, ENYO Studio, G. Vic & Jola, Hypercomf, Hyperscapes Research Office (HRO) + FluxGeist, Kakia Konstantinaki, Kostas Lambridis, Maria Paneta, Niccolo Sanavio, Studio Precarity, Un.Processed Realities
Exhibition website: https://unprocessedrealities.com/RuinsOfAnExtremePresent…