Opening: Thu, 23.03.2023, 7 pm
Duration: 24.03.2023 – 13.05.2023
Artists: Eglė Budvytytė, Seba Calfuqueo, Caterina Gobbi, Nona Inescu, Josèfa Ntjam, Sophie Utikal
Curator: Frederike Sperling

The first exhibition of Kunstraum Niederoesterreich’s 2023 annual program delves into the chaotic worlds of the so-called “virosphere.” Admittedly, we are rubbing salt into a deep, still open wound. After all, haven’t we only recently become painfully aware of the destructive powers of viruses? Indeed, these pathogens generally do not have a sterling reputation: they mutate and infect in an almost unbridled manner, nesting in host cells only to multiply rapidly.

And yet: Without viruses, life on this planet is inconceivable, human life included. These organic entities behave like the “glue” in our meshwork of entanglements with human and more-than-human beings. Thanks to them, our bodies enter into symbiotic relationships with fungi, insects, bacteria, and other organisms that inextricably unite us with an open system that humans cannot control. With their disruptive capacities, viruses challenge established forms of life, queering and expanding them. In doing so, they open up a poetic, speculative space in which emancipatory, hybrid modes of being can be imagined.

Matrix Bodies attempts to temporarily manifest this imaginary realm at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich. The group exhibition gathers works by the artists Eglė Budvytytė, Seba Calfuqueo, Caterina Gobbi, Nona Inescu, Joséfa Ntjam and Sophie Utikal, which shed light on the inseparability of humans and nature and speculate on transcorporeal, chimerical posthuman life forms. They forge emancipatory strategies for non-binary, more abundant and vibrant futures, while illuminating the multiple interdependencies and fluid transitions between different organisms.

At a time when the ecological crisis is rendering the anthropocentric narrative inexorably trivial, Matrix Bodies takes a closer look at the expansive, matrix-like webs of relationships that connect human and non-human states of being. It strives to reveal our symbiotic relationships with the world around us and to envision them as pluralistic scenarios for the future.

You can find more information about the individual works  in the accompanying brochure.