Flyer of the exhibition “Capitalo, Chthulu and a much hotter compost pile” presented in Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien -Berlin- from 14.4-10.6.2018. Curated by Lorena Juan, Lena Reisner and Anaïs Senli.
Design by Tea Palmelund
CAPITALO, CHTHULU AND A MUCH HOTTER COMPOST PILE
"The unfinished *Chthulucene* must collect up the trash of the *Anthropocene*, the exterminism of the *Capitalocene*, and chipping and shredding, and layering like a mad gardener, make a much hotter compost pile for still possible pasts, presents and futures.“1
The current moment is marked not by an ecological crisis, as a temporary state of emergency, but by an irreversible mutation of the global climate and the habitability of of planet Earth.2 It is a process driven by environmental pollution, ocean acidification, resource extraction, the burning of fossil fuels, agrochemical industries, and warfare, to list but a few of the anthropogenic, that is human, factors. The term *Anthropocene* is commonly used to describe this very condition, giving name to a new geological epoch, defined by significant human impact on biospheric stability and geological strata.
But the term *Antropocene* is not undisputed. It places humanity as a whole as a major geological agent, rendering invisible the structural responsibility of neoliberal financial elites and corporations. The *Capitalocene*, a concept examined for example by T.J. Demos 3, draws attention to global financial systems, highlighting the climatic impact of the capitalist political economy. Being aware of the biophysical costs of capitalism and its unequal distribution of human and ecological expenses, the current debate concerning how to think about humanity-in-nature and nature-in-humanity is a core theme of this exhibition.
The anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism, inherent in the notion of the *Anthropocene*, as well as the violent reinforcement of the nature-human divide that has marked western modern history, undermine attempts to think environmental strategies that are neither disengaged nor patronizing. Several works in the exhibition question and reflect on the symbolic and material separation of *nature* and *human*, for behind the naturalization of this binary lies an imperialist discourse that has not only promoted the transformation of landscapes with the single purpose of capital accumulation, but also a long history of racialized, gendered, and colonial violence.
With the aim of overcoming catastrophist and *game-over* discourses, the *Chthulucene* proposal, brought into play by Donna Haraway, advocates for a space-time of multi-species interactions and generative collaborations in a damaged world.4 This world, however, is dwelled by the so called *chthonic ones*, that is earthly or subterranean creatures, inspired by mythologies and cultual practices of diverse origins as well as factual and biological constellations. While the *Capitalocene* allows for an extended criticism, the *Chthulucene* refers to a kind of storytelling with strong bounds to speculative fabulation, science fiction, science fact and speculative feminism, that aims at creating more livable stories in unexpected company.
In an attempt to reject essentialist propositions and engage with postcolonial ecological thought, *Capitalo, Chthulu, and a Much Hotter Compost Pile* shows artistic positions that consider alternative ontological politics, reflect on environmental questions and speculate on possible narrations for our precarious times. These are stories of life (and non-life) told from the other side, to rethink how humans can fit, co-belong, co-produce, co-weave and com-post within this web of life.
Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 2016, p. 57.
See Bruno Latour, Kampf um Gaia, 2017, p. 22.
See T.J. Demos, Against the Anthropocene, 2017.
Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 2016.
Text written by Lorena Juan, Lena Reisner and Anaïs Senli
