An online film program with works by Tuomas A. Laitinen, Petra Lindholm, Maija Tammi & Charles Quevillon, Jenna Sutela and Kristina Õllek.
On view December 21–31, 2020
Connecting the Earth’s oceans and the cosmos, the five video works included in the program Ouroboros speak of interspecies relationships, co-evolution and of the fundamental interconnectedness of ecologies, pointing to the necessary planetary alliances that must be recognized, valued or established in order to envisage a different future. A seemingly-hipnotic entanglement of sounds, dream-like atmospheres and liminal states guides us from the deep waters into outer space across the Earth’s intertidal zones, inquiring on the multiple manifestations through which life thrives and evolves in complex endosymbiotic relationships.
The program is curated by Vanina Saracino and organised by the Finnish Institute in Estonia in collaboration with the artists and AV-arkki – The Centre for Finnish Media Art.
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Artists & Videos
Tuomas A. Laitinen: Protean Sap (link)
Petra Lindholm: Bystanders (link)
Maija Tammi and Charles Quevillon: Unheroic Labours #2 (link)
Jenna Sutela: Holobiont (link)
Kristina Õllek: Nautilus New Era (link)
Curated by Vanina Saracino (link)
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Ouroboros
Originally radiating from the sun, energy is constantly seized, consumed, transformed, and exchanged by life-forms through nutrition and predation, in a flux that is the basis for the maintenance and evolution of life itself. The eternal movement of universal energy represented by the world snake or ouroboros (“tail-devourer” in Greek etymology) symbolizes a perpetual becoming with no beginning and no end. How can planetary consciousness expand by overcoming notions of individual functioning? Have we ever been one?
Since the end of the ‘60s, biologist Lynn Margulis has argued that endosymbiotic relationships between organisms are the driving force of evolution—its “engine”. Evolution does not result from the accumulation of random mutations in individuals among whom only the fittest is selected amidst harsh competition (neo-Darwinism), but is instead the outcome of multiple endosymbiotic relationships among different species that gradually transform into enhanced organisms with more chances of survival when facing drastic environmental changes. Unity and collaboration are therefore keys to understanding matters related to life, evolution and consciousness. A human body is never one either: we are inhabited by millions of bacteria, fungi, even viruses, a microbial “consortium” whose subsistence we support and whom our existence directly depends on—a holobiont. Departing from microbiological evidence to build a systemic view into the planet’s fundamental organization of life, this approach can have a profound transformative effect on the ways we think about the planet and its functioning based on material interdependence among species.
Connecting the Earth’s waters and the cosmos, the five video works included in the program Ouroboros speak of interspecies relationships, coevolution and of the fundamental interconnectedness of ecologies, pointing to the necessary planetary alliances that must be recognized, valued or established to envisage a different future. A seemingly-hypnotic entanglement of sounds, dream-like atmospheres and liminal states guides us from deep waters into outer space across the Earth’s intertidal zones, inquiring on the multiple manifestations through which life thrives and evolves in complex endosymbiotic relationships.
Vanina Saracino