Plasticity of the Planet
Human activity has contributed to irrevocable damage to the natural environment. The project Plasticity of the Planet presented in Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art sets out to confront this destruction. It comprises two simultaneous exhibitions: Human-Free Earth and Center for Contemporary Nature by the investigative team Forensic Architecture. The project also includes issue 10 of the online magazine Obieg, entitled Becoming the Earth and a cinematic thread on the Anthropocene.
The point of departure for each of these projects is the realisation that nature has ceased to be a stable, neutral backdrop for human activity. This makes it imperative to face the resultant paradox: on the one hand, nature appears to be defenceless matter, totally subjugated to exploitation and devastation, yet on the other, it manifests as an elemental force capable of the reciprocation of the violation we have wreaked upon it with magnified force. Destructive plasticity – a concept proposed by the French philosopher Catherine Malabou – makes it possible to understand the paradox and face the inevitable without succumbing to negativity or catastrophism.
