Un/Green

Are we in control of ‘green’? Despite its broadly positive connotations, ‘green’ incrementally serves the uncritical desire of fetishistic and techno-romantic naturalization in order to metaphorically hyper-compensate for material systemic bio- and necro-politics, consisting of the increasing technical manipulation and exploitation of living systems, ecologies, and the biosphere at large.

The RIXC Festival 2019 will feature “Un/Green” exhibition opening that takes place in the Latvian National Museum of Art, which will be complemented with performances and artistic interventions. Curators of the exhibition Jens HAUSER(France/Germany) Rasa SMITE (RIXC, Latvia), Raitis SMITS (RIXC, Latvia) have chosen 20 works by Latvian and foreign artists.

American artist and professor Adam Brown will participate with a performance ‘Shadows from the Walls of Death’ in the exhibition opening. Adam Brown in his performance will recreate a color invented in 18th century – ‘Paris green’ – arsenic laden synthetic green pigment.  ‘Paris green’ was in its time widely used not only in painting but also in production of textile wallpapers although its toxic properties were only publicly discussed by the end of 19th century. The paradoxical and controversial use of poisonous green pigment reflects the yearning of humanity  to bring back greenness in urban life which was lost  in the Industrial Revolution.

Guest curator of ‘Un/Green’ exhibition Jens Hauser is media studies scholar and art curator focusing on the interactions between art and technology.  ‘Green’  as a color, biological phenomenon, medium, semantic construction and ideology has been relevant subject for him within ‘OUVERT‘ project. ‘OUVERT‘ systematizes findings acquired from variety of scientific disciplines. Project aims to develop new ways to speak about ecological questions an alternative to currently common superficial understanding and language of  ‘Green’. Exhibition ‘OUVERT’ will be created in France as a thematic follow-up to exhibition ‘Un/Green’ in Riga.

RIXC Festival will feature ‘Open Fields 2019: Un/Green – Naturally Artificial Intelligences’ international art and science conference which aims to ‘un-green greenness’, ‘Eco-systematically’ reconnect ‘post-human postures’, and discover and unpack ‘Naturally Artificial Intelligences’. RIXC festival conference gathers more than 100 international independent artists and academic researchers from 60 universities and 30 countries annually.