The CLI-FI 2050 Exhibition at Kasárna Karlín: Giant Slugs, UFOs and Talking Potatoes

Throughout June, we are hosting the CLI-FI 2050 exhibition in the interior and exterior spaces of Kasárna Karlín. The theme is climate fiction (cli-fi), a hypothetical vision of the future of our planet with special attention to climate change and its impact on society, in both a global, but also local, context. The key date explored in the exhibition is 2050. This year is often referred to in the context of forecasting models and in the context of international climate agreements and political commitments. The artists exhibiting explore their ideas about the future in relation to climate change through the work on display at CLI-FI 2050.

Milan Mikuláštík, the curator of this exhibition, comments on the selection of works on display: "Our aim was to capture at least a hint of the diversity of opinions and attitudes towards this complex, widely discussed topic. In some of the works on display here, there is hope and solutions are offered and promoted, in others works you notice an attitude of scepticism that humanity will not step up to meet the challenge of accelerated climate change and, instead, will be forced to deal with catastrophic consequences. The exhibition does not shy away from reflecting on climate activism itself and its contradictions. And we haven't forgotten UFOs!"

CLI-FI 2050 presents a wide range of media and all sorts of different ways in which artists relate to the issue. People can find paintings, objects, installations, photographs and videos. The timeline present in the Slovak imitative Nestrácajme čas! is an example of a clearly formulated activist stance - it offers viewers a detailed forecast of two variations of the way society could develop. In one reality, humanity takes a responsible approach to climate change and thrives, but in the other, our civilisation ignores all impending threats and is "rewarded" by terrible consequences.

Czech artist Vladimír Turner has taken aim at the phenomenon of greenwashing - the abuse of "green" themes by corporations and the apparatus of power - and represents it, for example, in the form of a large BIO sign made of artificial turf. In collaboration with Czech artist Lexa Peroutka, Thai artist Nongkran Panmongkol has created a monumental spatial installation in the Kasárna Karlín courtyard of a crumbling well, which reminds us of the importance of water in the ecosystem, but also refers to the lost knowledge of previous generations, the rediscovery of which may be one of the ways out of this huge ecological crisis we find ourselves in. The sculptor Martina Nosková strokes a giant snail in large-format photographs, thus reminding us of another environmental danger - the imminent (or perhaps ongoing?) mass extinction of the species. Petra Pětiletá approached current students and asked them about their ideas about the fate of the planet and the future of humanity.

The often cheerless visions of young participants, who will likely be the ones to live to 2050, are shown in the gallery and accompanied by a synthetic voice of a desktop computer. Jakub Hons' multimedia installation in the pool at Kasárna Karlín - potatoes enclosed in a perspex "incubator" speak to the human population and critically discuss the issue of colonialism. The third non-human entity whose voice is present in this exhibition is that of a meteorite voiced by Slovak artist András Cséfalvay, who travels through space as a meteorite and tells his story of the extinction of the dinosaurs, only to head towards a planet that bears a striking resemblance to earth in the last frame of the video. 

"Art is a great way to bring the changes happening around us due to climate to public attention. We are organising the CLI-FI 2050 exhibition as part of the international 1Planet4All project, through which we are trying to spread, not only awareness about climate change, but also to bring about real solutions that everyone can take part in,” says Lucie Marková, a Project Manager from People in Need.

Fifteen artists and art collectives will present their works at this exhibition and reflect on the issues that human-accelerated climate change has confronted us with. Namely:

• What will be the state of the planet's ecosystem in the coming decades?
• How will the Earth's temperatures change?
• How will ongoing climate change affect the evolution of society?
• How will the extinction of biological species change?
• What new technologies will affect the evolution of climate and society and how?
• How will agriculture and the food production situation change?
• Are we and our descendants facing a utopia or a dystopia?
• Do we have the opportunity to intervene in these developments?

This exhibition will feature works by artists Denis Baštuga, BCAA system, András Cséfalvay, Veronika Drahotová, Jakub Hons, Iniciatíva Nestrácajme čas!, Martina Nosková, Lexa Peroutka, Petra Pětiletá, Nongkran Panmongkol, Aleš Porubský, Julius Reichel, Vladimír Turner, Namor Ynrobyv, Dušan Zahoranský and others...