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Critical Zones Science Meets Art at This International Exhibit as it Explores Mankind’s Search for a Common Ground

23 Nov 2022 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}      

International travelling exhibition project ‘Critical Zones’ invites visitors to engage with the critical situation of the Earth’s critical zone in an interactive and stimulating curation of art works, installations and experiences.  Critical Zones is open to the public at the J.D.A Perera Gallery, Colombo till 27th November 2022. 

Critical Zones is based on a concept by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel and was first exhibited in Germany. In collaboration with the Goethe-Institute in South Asia, the exhibit is set to travel through India and Sri Lanka in 2022 and 2023, complemented by further works from local artists. 

The Critical Zone is Earth’s land surface where most terrestrial life – including humanity and all that they need to survive such as water, soil, plants, rocks and animal life – resides. It’s the zone where rock meets life; the very bare bones of all existence. Yet human behaviour has disrupted this thin and fragile zone and scientists are calling this domain ‘critical’ as this tiny part of the Earth on which humankind is totally dependent upon has entered into a sort of intensive care. 

The Critical Zones exhibit is where critical zone science meets art; exhibiting a series of projects, installations, art works and research that sheds light into the topic. Curator of the exhibit, Mira Hirtz explaining the concept shared, “[the exhibit] is to make people rethink our relationship with Earth. We place ourselves as all important on this Earth, happy to use the resources it provides as and when we need it and now, we’ve exhausted it and the consequences are coming back to us. What happens if we damage this zone upon beyond repair?”

The exhibit occupies all three floors of the JDA Gallery with installations ranging from documentaries and research experiments to artwork and multimedia setups. A particular favourite from the exhibit was ‘Atmospheric Forest’ – a virtual reality installation that provided visitors with an immersive visualisation on the complex relationship between a forest, climate change and the atmosphere. “Critical Zones is a thought experiment that is based on the notion that we don’t live from the land we live on. It’s a response to the ecological crisis.”

PIX by Waruna Wanniarachchi 

Critical Zones exhibit will be on view till 27th November 2022 at J.D.A Perera Gallery and will be accompanied by a vast activation programme consisting of workshops, film screenings and discussions. For more details - https://www.goethe.de/ins/lk/en/ver.cfm