Science Friction. Living Among Companion Species

12.06.2021 - 28.11.2021

Centre de Cultura Contemporánia de Barcelona, CCCB, Barcelona / España

Is it possible to imagine other earthly stories? Can we conceive of other ways of living among different species? This exhibition explores these issues with the help of a selection of works of art and popular science. It proposes a change of mentality and sensitivity that questions the supremacy of the human species, opting for a view of the world understood as an ecosystem where all the planet’s species coexist.

“If, as Haraway and Margulis argue, the whole Earth is alive, it is time to abandon the myth of supremacy and reconnect with our many earthly companions....”, Maria Ptqk

The starting point for the exhibition “Science Friction. Life among Companion Species” is the scientific evidence that all terrestrial species are linked by symbiotic, interdependent relationships. In nature there are no autonomous or independent organisms; we are all part of mutually integrated ecosystems. Species make up a network of collaborations, mutations and exchanges in which we coexist as companions.

This paradigm shift implies that the human species is not exceptional or superior. Ultimately, symbiosis questions human supremacy: the idea that the whole of nature and all living beings are at the service of our well-being.

To narrate this change in perspective, the exhibition draws on the work of two key figures in contemporary scientific culture: Donna Haraway and Lynn Margulis. The two have in common the importance they accord to symbiosis and collaboration between species, and their interest in communication and scientific narrative.
Artists, thinkers, scientists and activists

The transition from anthropocentrism (a human-centred world view) to biocentrism (the human as part of an ecosystem) runs through the exhibition. The visitor will find a selection of artworks in different media, such as immersive audiovisual and sound installations, virtual reality, painting, drawing and avant-garde cinema, as well as items of scientific dissemination.

The exhibition curator, Maria Ptqk, has brought together a series of creators, thinkers and scientists from around the world who explore interspecies relationships and persuade us of the urgency of inventing other science f(r)ictions and fabular and speculative stories that expand the imaginable and help us place ourselves in the emerging interspecies paradigm.

The exhibition that will run at the CCCB completes a broader cycle of research started in 2017 with an exhibition produced by the virtual space of the Jeu de Paume Visual Arts Centre in Paris.

The exhibition has had the collaboration and scientific advice of Ricard Guerrero, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Barcelona, and Rubén Duro Pérez, scientific communicator.

In the framework of the City and Science Biennial 2021.


[Quelle: https://web.archive.org/web/20210615164635/https://www.cccb.org/en/exhibitions/file/science-friction/234907]