21.01 supernatural

super­na­tu­ral is an inter­na­tio­nal exhi­bi­ti­on of con­tem­po­ra­ry art. its core is for­med by hyper-rea­li­stic sculp­tures. the extre­me rea­lism that star­ted in ame­ri­can art of the 1960s, then spread through the world and evol­ved into dif­fe­rent styl­es, is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by a com­bi­na­ti­on of authen­ti­ci­ty and stran­ge and breath­ta­king atten­ti­on to detail. super­na­tu­ral explo­res the dimen­si­ons and poten­ti­als of embo­di­ment. in addi­ti­on to sculp­tures, it fea­tures a num­ber of video works and a series of photographs.
a balan­ced rela­ti­onship bet­ween huma­ni­ty and natu­re is a pre­con­di­ti­on for all human exis­tence. the impacts of tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment that fol­lo­wed the indus­tri­al revo­lu­ti­on have been num­e­rous – and often unpre­dic­ta­ble. accor­ding to many of today’s rese­ar­chers, huma­ni­ty its­elf has beco­me an evo­lu­tio­na­ry force that shapes life on earth. the future is full of pos­si­bi­li­ties and thre­ats, but the trends are rare­ly just black and white.
super­na­tu­ral focu­ses our thoughts on our exis­tence in the world, on huma­ni­ty and on its future tog­e­ther with all living and non-human crea­tures. the art­works by more than thir­ty artists pose ques­ti­ons and explo­re the fol­lo­wing noti­ons with their artis­tic free­dom: who or what will we beco­me? what will our bodies look like in the future? how will the natu­re react? what effect will tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment have on our men­tal states?
con­tem­po­ra­ry artists con­stant­ly turn to the world of sci­ence and rese­arch for inspi­ra­ti­on. some of the artists fea­tured in exhi­bi­ti­on also col­la­bo­ra­te with rese­ar­chers by working in mul­ti­di­sci­pli­na­ry teams or forming artist-rese­ar­cher duos. many have found useful per­spec­ti­ves in natu­ral sci­ence and tech­no­lo­gy, while others reflect on the thoughts of their fel­low human beings on a more gene­ral phi­lo­so­phi­cal level. gene­tic engi­nee­ring and arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence alre­a­dy make it pos­si­ble to modi­fy natu­re, ani­mals, plants, even humans. tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tions, such as 3d prin­ting, robo­tics and syn­the­tic bio­lo­gy, have influen­ced the ways the artists work: their mate­ria­li­ties, expres­si­on, the­mes and subjects.
the exhi­bi­ti­on fea­tures art­works by the fol­lo­wing artists:
banz & bowin­kel (frie­de­mann banz & giu­lia bowin­kel), hicham ber­ra­da, lee bul, anne car­nein, anna dumit­riu & alex may, anna estar­rio­la, isa genz­ken, glaser/kunz (dani­el gla­ser & mag­da­le­na kunz), tho­mas grün­feld, sam jinks, kriš­tof kin­te­ra, josh kli­ne, peter land, lucia leu­ci, gosh­ka macu­ga, rei­ner maria maty­sik, mau­rice mbi­kayi, fabi­en mérel­le, patri­cia pic­ci­ni­ni, san­tis­si­mi (sara ren­zet­ti & anto­nel­lo ser­ra), super vivaz (lina baltru­weit & johan­nes breu­nin­ger), mai­ja tam­mi, anna udden­berg, andro wekua, pinar yoldas.
exhi­bi­ti­on con­cept: nico­le fritz, kunst­hal­le tübingen
cura­ted by: eli­na vie­ru (oulu muse­um of art)