Utopia Today x REX Box
May 2023, daily, 13:30 to 24:00
16.05.2023, 18:30 til 19:30 in room REX2: Introduction and screening of video works by Anouk Sebald
Kassenhaus des Kino REX Bern, Schwanengasse 9, 3011 Bern.
Artists: Abdulnasser Gharem, Zongbo Jiang, Anouk Sebald, Kwang-Ju Son.
Curated by Anouk Sebald, Bern.
"The Principle of Hope" (Ernst Bloch)
In our world, where we are moving further and further away from nature, the idea of creating a harmonious relationship between humans and nature seems utopian.
Key resources for the selection of the works shown and the research for my video work "Eutopia" were two books by the German philosopher Ernst Bloch: "Das Prinzip Hoffnung" (The Principle of Hope) and his early work "Geist der Utopie" (Spirit of Utopia), published in 1918 in the middle of the war, which tragically has lost none of its relevance.
Is a Utopia a concept of an ideal society that is unattainable? In times of climate change, species extinction and environmental pollution, it seems to me more necessary than ever to have a vision of a better future. The difference between a dream and a utopia is that a dream is often something vague that does not allow for a clear vision of a better future. A utopia, on the other hand, is a concrete idea based on certain values and ideals that helps us to find solutions to the problems of the present that can perhaps give us orientation and hope.