- Pictures
- Video
The artistic duo Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan are invited to present the installation Proxy Climates at the international exhibition „Overview Effect” organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade between 19th of June – 20th of September 2021.
Since 2019 the artists have been collecting pollen grains from dry land regions in the process of desertification, where vegetation is slowly vanishing, starting with the Oltenian Sahara in Southern Romania, and then, extending their research on other regions across Europe, such as Italy, Spain, Serbia, Greece. Pollen is proxy data. Since pollen grains rarely rot, they are well preserved in the sediment layers. An examination of the pollen grains, in each layer of soil, can tell what types of plants were growing when the sediment was deposited. Interpretations can then be made about the climate, based on the types of plants found in each layer of soil. The project aims to preserve the plant's genetic material and memory of disappearing flora, while also serving as possible scientific material for future paleoclimatic studies.
Overview Effect is a project that seeks to explore the complexity of the ecological problematics and the inseparable links between them and issues like corporate imperialism, indigenous sovereignty, gender, different kinds of extractivisms and the importance of decolonising not just history but also our concept of nature in order to reshape an inclusive mindset akin to a post-anthropocentric world. The goal is to rethink the issue of environmental justice and propose an approach to art one possible way to a better future and to building an awareness that opens a path for a new eco-aesthetics approach.
project and curatorial direction: Blanca de la Torre and Zoran Erić
assistant curator: Dušan Savić
production: Dragana Jovović
design: Katarina Popović, Andrej Dolinka
Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the project has taken shape in two stages. The first part and the launch of Overview Effect was held on October 2nd 2020. It comprised a group of outdoor installations in the sculpture park of the Museum, a mural, site-specific interventions in different urban and rural areas, performances, artist’s workshops, artistic projects on Instagram, and the production of a personalized stamp with artist’s motif, among others. During this phase of the project, Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan presented „The Call of the Outside” - a model of a rocket ship hosting a garden and a film program for plants.
Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan live and work in Vienna and Bucharest. Their practice is multidisciplinary and includes sculpture, multi-media installation, drawing, video and performance.
Personal exhibitions: „The Last Particles”, „40mcube”, Rennes, France, 2019; „What Ties Us Together„, LaBF15, Lyon, France, 2019; „Ground Control”, Centrala Gallery, Birmingham, UK, 2018; „The Call of the Outside”, tranzit.ro/Cluj; „We were so few and so many of us are left”, tranzit.ro/București and tranzit.hu/Budapesta, 2013.
Group exhibitions: „Potential Worlds 2: ECO-FICTIONS”, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland 2020-2021; „Slow Life: Radical Practices of the Everyday”, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary, 2021; „The Overview Effect”, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, Serbia, 2020-2021; „Persona”, MUCEM, Marseille, France, 2019; Bienala Art Encounters Timisoara, 2019; „Silent Narratives”, MOCA, Yinchuan, China, 2019; „Natural Histories, Traces of the Political”, MUMOK, Vienna, Austria, 2017; „Gaudiopolis”, Off Biennale Budapest, 2017; „GLOBALE: Global Control and Censorship”, ZKM | Karlsruhe, Germany 2016; „Sights and Sounds”, The Jewish Museum, New York, 2016; „The School of Kyiv” – The Biennale, Kyiv, 2015; „Der Brancusi-Effekt”, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria, 2014; „Mom, am I barbarian?”, 13th Istanbul Biennial, 2013; „Intense Proximity”, La Triennale, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012.
