Theme Exhibition: (Co)Owning More-than-Truth

Developed within the framework of the European project More-than-Planet, this year’s theme exhibition, (Co)Owning More-than-Truth, calls for a complete shift in our worldviews, relationships, language, consciousness, and narratives across the planet. From significant signs of climate change to fake news, it is evident that the truths humanity collates on the planet —be they numbers, facts, narratives, voices, or orders of life — are still patchy and biased, with their impacts and consequences varying for individual beings, societies, and nature. While truth is vital for human progress and development, we need more than just truth; we require new sets of actions to transcend beyond human advancements.

(Co)Owning More-than-Truth addresses this point by viewing truth as a pharmacon to navigate current topologies of the knowledge structure, to map them out as dynamic and multifaceted entities and to accommodate the truths that are drifting and shifting. On display are myriads of artworks gliding from truths unearthed from the landscapes, ecosystems and cycle of life in and out of Earth to ground truths of collecting data and processing information to challenge existing regimes of knowledge. Deviating from the quandary of what the truth is and to whom we delegate the right to the truth, (Co)Owning More-than-Truth offers a space where interdisciplinary practices, approaches, and narratives are pluralized to unearth a more profound and inclusive understanding of being together, forging a path towards a consensus of collective efforts for the crises we face as a whole. Through the selected artworks, the exhibition encourages you to question prevailing norms and engage in critical reflections about the complexities of true ownership and its impact on global urgencies through various acts of owning: Navigating, Mapping and Shifting.

Navigating Truths

(Co)Owning begins with sensing and realizing what is before us as well as what can be imagined and experimented with. In Navigating truths, new forms of ecosystem, food chain and symbiosis are presented to expand the horizon of how truths could be perceived and unfolded. Through artistic speculation and scientific imagination on queer and postcolonial futures, marginalized narratives on territories, technologies that calibrate the usage of natural resources as well as scientific theories create a base for understanding different matters, bodies, species and their relationships, while recognizing and questioning individual lens carved to form truths.

Mapping Truths

In Mapping Truths, the exhibition delves into various practices of calibrating and mapping the cartographies of both natural and digital ecologies to not only unearth truths about our surroundings but to identify nonhuman agencies that coexist with us on the planet. From Southwest of Colombia to the Karst regions of Slovenia, indigenous spirituality, governance, data on natural disasters such as wildfires, melting glaciers and permafrost as well as offshore infrastructure and species are meticulously laid out to expand on a new sense of community. Here, different temporalities and technologies are artistically contested to combat limitations of human perception for it is not merely to generate facts or truths, but to actively own and connect more nodes between multifarious entities.

Shifting Truths

The advancements of technologies and media have reached a state where the fine line between fake and real is blurred, circulation of specific content is dominated by the stakeholders while personal data with information and narratives is evermore tokenized. Who creates and validates them? Are the tools and outputs accessible to everyone? Whose voice is being marginalized and whose narrative holds more significance? How could we further envisage our subjectivities to include and expand our current knowledge system? The final section brings us to the heart of the exhibition’s inquiry: taking truths as a human construct and reevaluating the power of multiple narratives in shaping truth and our planet. Selected artworks challenge the audience to tackle the implicit trust in certain sources of data and reflect on how individual experiences and perspectives shape the understanding of truth.

At the nexus of art, technology and society, (Co) Owning More-than-Truth endeavors to bring different subjects, fields and knowledge together. Yet, this signifies the utmost truth we are all aware of: No single entity or community could take hold of crises at a planetary scale, and we all co-own the planet together. By shifting the perception of truth as a social construct, the exhibition challenges the audience to engage
with a multitude of perspectives, inviting it to be an active participant in the construction of its meaning. As we navigate, map and embrace shifting truths, the exhibition serves as the platform where truth is not a fixed destination but a continuous journey of exploration and discovery of the future we want to own.

Presented in the context of the More-than-Planet project, part of the theme exhibition is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The exhibition features works from EMAP (The European Media Art Platform) residency created through the European Media Artist in Residence Exchange (EMARE), Art Science Residency funded by Art Collection Deutsche Telekom, Randa Art|Science Residency project organized by Institut Ramon Llull, hosted by Ars Electronica and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST). The exhibition also includes artworks awarded the ArTS (Art, Technology, Society) Production Grant for Swiss Artists, a grant supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. Creative Industries Fund NL generously supports a section of the exhibition.

Credits

This exhibition is presented in the context of the More-than-Planet project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.