Chapters from the technosphere brings together artists, researchers and collaborators in an evolving exhibition that examines the planetary systems and infrastructures through which contemporary life is produced, sustained and transformed.
Developed and researched by artist Sheldon Saliba and curator Elyse Tonna, Chapters from the technosphere draws on the concept of the technosphere: the planetary-scale system of human-made infrastructures, technologies, materials and residues that increasingly shape the environments in which we live. Rather than treating these systems as distant or abstract, the project considers how extraction, energy, water and food intersect with landscapes, bodies and everyday life.
The project emerged through a process of fieldwork and speculative archaeology surrounding the cave complex of Għar il-Kbir, using the site as a point of departure for considering how human activity leaves material traces across landscapes and how these traces might inform our understanding of the future.
On show at Spazju Kreattiv, the exhibition takes the form of a living laboratory. It unfolds across four conceptual chapters and will evolve throughout its duration through material installation, living systems and collective input.
Each chapter also invites a supporting artist to interpret the concept, including Julian Micallef, Samuel Ciantar, Martina Farrugia and Jamie Barbara with Rakel Vella. Rather than presenting a fixed exhibition, Chapters from the technosphere creates a space for observation, experimentation and exchange, inviting audiences to consider the systems that underpin contemporary life and the possible futures they produce.
The project also challenges conventional divisions between artist, curator, researcher and audience. Artistic and curatorial roles are embedded within a collaborative research process, allowing the exhibition to develop through encounters between different forms of knowledge, practice and experience.
Alongside the exhibition, the laboratory will generate a curated public programme and publication, bringing together collaborators, contributors and communities through events, workshops and critical writing. These activities will extend the questions raised within the exhibition beyond the gallery, creating opportunities for collective reflection and further research.
Chapters from the technosphere: Reimagining ways of living will be on view at Space C, Spazju Kreattiv until Sunday, 1 November.
Follow the exhibition on www.instagram.com/technosphere.exe/ for more information on the public programme