7 pm: Panel discussion with Dr. Peter Iwaniewicz (biologist), Carolin Seifriedsberger (lawyer at DLA PIPER) and Edgar Honetschläger
Curator and Host: Lucas Gehrmann
The Bugs’ Architects: the next ENTERprise (Ernst Fuchs + Marie-Therese Harnoncourt)
The latest project by internationally renown Austrian artist and filmmaker Edgar Honetschläger is dedicated to initiating collectively driven ecological restoration measures in favour of re-establishing the battered insect population’s natural habitat. At the Kunsthalle Vienna, Karlsplatz Honetschläger’s Non Profit Organization GoBugsGo! will be launched – a trans-disciplinary initiative in collaboration with lawyers, biologists, farmers and real estate developers which aims at invoking a collective practice that invites each and every individual to become active in its effort to save our planet from total collapse.
Honetschläger, a fervent traveler, a citizen of the world, spent the past quarter century in the USA, Japan, Brazil and Italy. In his artistic practice he’s been focussing on questioning cultural givens, the concept of individualisation and mankind’s relation with nature. During his travels he has been facing an ever increasing destruction of natural habitats, immense, irreversible damages caused by intensive farming, excessive consumerism and waste of resources at alarming speed. In Australia while driving for hours along burned out meadows inhabited by cattle he’d never came across a kangaroo or a koala bear. In Japan he has been witnessing the dramatic impact on both nature and humans caused by the triple melt down at Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Back in his 800 qm vegetable garden north of Rome he faced a spooky silence driven by a draught that had been lasting for years. In the last 20 years 80% of the insects and subsequently 40% of the bird population have disappeared from the surface of our globe. Absence of rain in combination with pesticides, light pollution etc. let more and more species vanish, yet, without their pollination skills the harvest of vegetables and fruits diminish dramatically. Butterflies, cicadas and fireflies are slowly turning into creatures from the farfetched past. Reason enough for Honetschläger to pause and develop counteractions both locally and globally. Collaborating with Italian farmers he developed alternative forms of farming, he experimented with microbes and other substances as anti-virus and anti-fungus measures. Parallel to growing a huge bandwidth of vegetables that reached outrageous sizes and grew in threatening abundance he worked out a concept to establish a lobbying group that attempts to protect insects and birds entitled GoBugsGo!. What if millions of people who worry about our future form a bond? What if those who have nothing join forces, buy land and give it back to nature, so that plants, insects, birds and other animals can breed and thrive unhindered? Patches of land will remain untouched by humans – no fertilizers, no human interference, no destruction – Non Human Zones.
Edgar Honetschläger is not an unworldly dreamer or a society drop out, rather an utopian realist who creates, beyond an artistic framework, a constructive vision for the future of our environment and our society. He founded a non-profit-organisation entitled GoBugsGo!, set up a website and a social media network, linked himself via social media to economists, ecologists, lawyers and biologists. He harvested tons of tomatoes, zucchini and egg plants, cooked and filled them into jars. Together with a print in edition these glasses will serve as an incentive to join the movement GoBugsGo! At the Kunsthalle 1500 jars will form an installation and “Buggies” will pack them into neatly hand stamped cardboard boxes for those who are willing to participate in the movement GoBugsGo! Common interest in preserving the environment shall win over short-sighted individual profits. GoBugsGo!
Fiona Liewehr, Oktober 2018
Edgar Honetschläger had solo shows at Casino Luxemburg, Belvedere21 Wien, Kunsthalle Brandts Odense Dänemark, Sagatcho Exhibit Space Tokyo, OÖ Landesmuseum and the Kunsthalle Krems. Participation in DOCUMENTA X, MUDAM Luxemburg, Hammer Museum Los Angeles and Kunsthalle Wien among many others. His films screened at the Berlinale, Viennale and other internationals film festivals. Currently Honetschläger makes his homes near Rome and Vienna.
www.gobugsgo.org
www.facebook.com/gobugsgo
Exhibition: Edgar Honetschläger. Nature is an impossibility. GoBugsGo!
Charim Galerie
www.charimgalerie.at
Opening: Tuesday, December 4, 2018, 7 pm
Duration: December 5, 2018 – January 19, 2019
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 11 am – 6 pm
Saturday 11 am – 2 pm, and by arrangement