“Successions”
Irena Đukanović / Djukanovic
3 channel installation with drawings
32 min, 2 min, 2min
Successions is a story telling piece in the form of a visual essay composed as hybrid genre scientific and philosophical fairytale that could be transfered into real life. It is inspired by one of the most extraordinary forms of life on earth. The heroes of the story are human body in its inner metabolic form, Tardigrade a microscopic animal and Leaf sheep a sea slug.
Human body is showed as complex but still fragile creation of life, deeply puzzled in its contemporary challenges on the edge of hipertechnology. Tardigrade a microscopic animal is the playing the role of a superhero because of its uncanny resilience to almost everything. Tardigrade is an animal that can survive extreme temperatures both cold and hot, it is immune to radiation and can survive without air. It is already proven that due to all of this it can survive in space and it is accompanying astronauts to space stations currently.
The whole world scientific community is researching Tardigrade – water bear in hopes to snatch and steal some of its ability and apply it to the human world in many crucial situations. Our third character Leaf sheep is an animal that is one of just few in the world that can produce photosynthesis by eating algae. As it lives in seas under water photosynthesis something crucial for life existence has almost no purpose. Leaf sheep is an animal artist creating something seemingly purposeless in its environment but something crucial for maintaining life and survival on planet earth. Like an artist creates new value in unusual and unexpected scenario something crucial for survival of the spirit.
Along the way confronting this characters this piece is taking you on a dream like almost childish journey of introspection and self reinvention. How to hack this abilities and qualities with science or with out it on a conceptual way. How to direct our lives in to a better and more creative future? This exhibition is just one of many places this search can start.
The 2 video projections are accompanied by drawings and a 3. projections with a projected sentence. The text to acknowledge the connection of topics in the main video piece with the current pandemic situation even though the main idea was born right before the pandemic appeared. The text is written in my mother tongue Serbo-Crotian and this sentence is understandable probably for all the Slavic language speakers. The last element the drawings are proof of my personal visual and conceptual search for the knowledge and new solutions this 3 heroes posses. On the drawings they are finally merged in to one.
Projected text:
све ће бити у реду - everything will be fine