Synopsis:

Featuring: Irene Agrivina (Indonesia) Animali Domestici (Italy/Thailand) Ines Doujak (Austria/United Kingdom) Pierre Huyghe (France/United States) Jae Rhim Lee (South Korea/United States) Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom, Argentina/France) Nicholas Mangan (Australia) Marjetica Potrč (Slovenia/Germany) Hito Steyerl (Germany)

Currently, more than half of the world's human population lives in urban areas. Urban growth poses challenges to the various city dwellers, and creates material demands that cause lasting damage to the wider environment. The climate crisis is already announcing threatening scenarios particularly for coastal regions and megacities located at coastlines. Global urbanisation and the exploitation of resources happen on the expense of human and other species alike. The Posthuman City features artists who propose a shift in perspective.

Taking NTU CCA Singapore's overarching research topic Climates. Habitats. Environments. as point of departure, the exhibition The Posthuman City considers the possibilities of a conscious sharing of resources, and a respectful and mindful coexistence between humans and other species. Through imaginative propositions at the intersection of art, design, and architecture, the selected artists engage questions addressing issues of sustainability, water scarcity, invisible communities, nature as a form of culture, and suggest the implementation of lived indigenous knowledges. Examining the urban fabric in its condition as a habitat for a diversity of life forms, the featured works range from installations to time-based media. The Posthuman City, through artistic propositions, intends to open a discussion about the imbalanced relationship between an anthropocentric thinking that puts the human at the centre, and the fact that the urban environment is a habitat for many life forms. In her book The Posthuman (2013), Rosi Braidotti calls for resilience, stating that "sustainability does assume faith in a future, and also a sense of responsibility for 'passing on' to future generations a world that is liveable and worth living in. A present that endures is a sustainable model of the future."

Curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Professor, NTU ADM, and Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and Laura Miotto, Associate Professor, NTU ADM.

Image: Hito Steyerl, Liquidity Inc., 2014, film still. Courtesy the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, and Esther Schipper, Berlin. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2019.