Vienna Biennial

I had the chance to visit some of the works in the Vienna Biennale and came across the best exhibition I have ever seen. It was amazing and it related to my work so much it was crazy.

The exhibition included two installations change was our only chance and noise aquarium. The two showed creative use of the Extinction Rebellion Stephan Handschuh’s research. Using art as a medium to raise awareness and reflection on the ecological and economic issues occurring and how this may affect people’s everyday lives.

‘Noise Aquarium’ focussed on how the changes in our ecosystem is affecting plankton, brining awareness of simply how noisy we are disrupts marine life. The installation featured images and videos with facts and information about the issues, but the main feature was the Virtual Reality piece. This audio-visual experience brought plankton to life and the participant would interact with the plankton, bringing the threat of marine life to a visual and audible understanding. 

The second Installation was ‘Change Was Our Only Chance’ by the artist collective Time’s Up, the installation creates a dystopian environment where we experience this potential future depending on the decisions and actions taken on political, economic and climate issues.             

The installation was amazing and this message did not only get across but it truly did make me feel like I was experiencing our potential future, as it was made in such a way it allowed and encouraged the audience to engage in the work, making the message more effective. When you first walk in the room you can you see a black and white bar like installation with some head sets and props around until you realise everything is made from carboard, the bar, the furniture, there are literally chairs made from cardboard that you can sit on, all of the props where made from cardboard such as a Moby Dick book on the bar. Each of the sitting areas have different head sets of conversations that appear too have happened at that table for instance there was a conversation between two rich people discussing how they have paid to get shelter from the climate crisis and this table features objects that would connect to these characters. The execution of this installation was simply amazing there was so many small details, for instance in the sound piece you could hear the background of the bar clattering and background conversations and everything had a disturbing undertone of a dystopian future due to climate change. 

There were even multiple interactive elements to the installation. There was a game that 3 people can play together and there was them yellow sailor rainmac kind of suits that could be worn so of course I put the full outfit on and there where fully detailed newspapers, the details of this exhibition actually astonished me. And it doesn’t even stop there when walking out of this installation I then noticed a whole in the wall where you climb in and there’s a full set up like one of the climate science research boats, filled with small items and details making it feel like we were experiencing the reality of what someone was living in.

It was just crazy, I absolutely loved it and I’m so glad I saw the exhibition it has definitely had a huge influence on me and I think this may have influenced an idea for some of my own art work.