With so many man-made catastrophes befalling and wars raging (close and afar), instantly shared in countless images and videos, a modern-day wanderer finds itself powerlessly contemplating not the sublime, but the horrors of human nature and the eerie landscapes of injustice. Mutating a famed Novalis musing “Everything at a distance turns into / becomes poetry: distant mountains, distant people, distant events” and Caspar DavidFriedrich references, the title and aesthetic exploration of the Apparatus 22 flag open a reflection on feeling powerless and on coping mechanisms in dealing with images of war, loss and traumatic experiences.
Apparatus 22 is a collective of daydreamers, citizens of many realms, researchers, poetic activists and (failed) futurologists founded in January 2011 by current members Erika Olea, Maria Farcas, Dragos Olea together with Ioana Nemes (1979 – 2011) in Bucharest, Romania. Beginning with 2015 they are working between Bucharest, Brussels and SUPRAINFINIT utopian universe. In their very diverse works – installations, performances, text based-shapes, reality is mixed with fiction and storytelling and all merge with a critical approach drawing knowledge & experiences in design, sociology, literature and economics.
Title: Everything at a distance becomes abstraction (2024)
Artist: Apparatus 22
Ludwig Forum
https://www.apparatus22.ro