2022 Posthuman: Story Telling for Earthly Survival

The ACC Residency Earth Survival Guide: Posthuman 2022 offers an opportunity to explore the spirit of a new era, ‘Posthumanism’, amid the pandemic and the crisis of the Anthropocene. The outbreak of COVID-19 and more evolved viruses has exposed the limitations of the anthropocentric mindset that considered humans as the only species capable of action, further confirmed by environmental pollution, climate crisis, and ecological issues. The cutting-edge technology of the 4th Industrial Revolution has turned such crises into an opportunity to create new modes of life and provided a window into a posthuman reality where artificial intelligence is a world member. This exhibition is based on the thoughts and ideas shared during the four months of the residency program. Each artist will go beyond the anthropocentric humanism concerned with the convergence and boundary of humans, animals, and machines, and with the question of how technological development will change the definition of ‘humans’, to play with their own imagination about a ‘posthumanism’ where humans and other organisms coexist. The works on display, which alter our sensations and bodies and suggest a new alliance between humans, nonhumans, and hybrid beings, depict how advancements in biotechnology can lead to the breakdown of the boundary between these different organisms. The artists also envision the coevolution of humans and machines through works that began from their expectation that humans will one day exist in a digital and mental form that is not restricted by their physical body, and deal with the critical posthumanism that connects man and technology. We imagine an open future in which all living things enjoy equal rights and live together in the era of the Anthropocene by building a new relationship of solidarity that transcends anthropocentrism. This exhibition calls for global coexistence and solidarity in the age of the pandemic and climate crisis, as well as an opportunity to share ideas about the practical applications of posthumanism that will lead us into the world of Sympoiesis (co-creation). It’s time for us to put our heads together and think about the ‘planet earth’, which shares its right to life with human and nonhuman beings. Earth Survival Guide: Posthuman 2022 will explore the ethics of an era in which humans and nonhumans coexist on the same planet earth, and lead us to a future imaginary world where they try new forms of communication.

2022 Asia Culture Center Residency participants:

Art & Technology: Shailesh BR, SLITSCOPE (Kim Jae Min, Kim KeunHyoung), Lingxiang Wu, ().(:) (Oliver Griem / Dahan), Lee Inkang, Chae Jonghyeok, Christian Dimpker
Visual Arts: Sue Jeong Ka, Lumbera-Singh (Jim Jasper J. Lumbera/ Joey Alexis Singh), vn-a&a (Arlette Quynh Anh Tran/ Architecture Studio vn-a), Soh Boram, Lee Saem, J.H.R (Jung Hyeryun/Kang Dae Woon), JOOSLA, korinsky/seo (Korinsky Carlo / Seo Sujin)
Design: Go Bohkyung, Rodrigo Marín Briceño
Dialogue: You Seunga
Theater: Theater miin, Lucia Pineda, Lumbera-SinghJeong Seyoung / Lee Jaemin

The Asia Culture Center (ACC) has been conducting residency programs since 2015 to support experts, researchers, artists, and creators from different fields to develop future-oriented and innovative ideas through the arts. After becoming an integrated center in 2022, ACC launched a creation and production-centered residency program and selected remarkable artists with a view to creating convergence content that reflects ACC’s vision. In particular, this exhibition will allow the 33 participants from 21 teams in 5 fields selected last September under the subject of “the Post COVID-19 Era and Post-humanism” to present the result of the work they have devoted themselves to for around four months through the ACC residency program’s production process.