Lost and found – Museum of the Poreč territory

30/06/2016 0 Comments Exhibition

Description

«You meet a new person, you go with him and suddenly you get a whole new city, you see houses you never saw before, pass places you didn’t even know were there. Everything changes.» Samuel R. Delany

Getting lost as a mean of reconnection with ourselves might seem as a completely nonsense idea in a time of hyper connectivity when everything is available immediately, when we are in constant connection, online and offline. Our topography is clear when we are navigating our way around places, using maps on smartphones. Getting lost looks like an impossible task.

French philosopher Paul Virilio says that the growth of technology, separates us directly from the events in real time and real space. In his work, «Aesthetic of Disappereance», Virilio considers the motivations and repercussions of a contemporary society fascinated by speed.

In this time of speed we could still sense a growing need for slowing down, getting to understand what are we doing and sometimes even who we are. We are experiencing a new wave of research and exploration, of identity questioning. More and more initiatives are adressed to directly experiencing territories and spaces, often by walking.

This exhibition is set as a small tribute to the travel, intended as a way to move through space, as a passage in which we can both lose and find ourselves. Featured artists are working in a wide range of media, but especially with photography, which could be seen as a significant medium that allows a close relationship with time as well. And time is, along with space, crucial in the process of getting lost. Taking time to get lost means allowing things to happen, taking time to wander through places means seeing things we wouldn’t notice when in a rush. Time means experience, direct and real experience.

The idea of wandering with no specific pourpose was described by Guy Debord in his essay «Theorie de la dérive» (1958).

His «derivé» is drifting into the city with no specific destination and therefore creates space for new, unexpected encounters.

In this exhibition, the aim is to present the concept of wandering as a process that allows getting lost but with the purpose to understand and to learn. And maybe also find something in the end.