How on Earth presents what’s wrong with the Anthropocene?

The Anthropocene is both a contested term as it is a concrete reality. Since its inception, the term signifies a new epoch in which 'Man', as a primary agent, has a destructive and lasting effect upon the planet's systems. Within our current social and ecological crisis, Anthropocene tends to capture global-scale processes, such as the mass-extinction of living entities, deforestation, and resource extraction.

According to its critics, however, the term Anthropocene fails to give an account of the ways in which these lasting and destructive effects are differentiated. It fails to effectively include the blatant and destructive activities of the state and corporate industries, suggesting that we all share equally the causes and effects of climate change. In other words, the term 'human' or 'Man' as a generalizing concept obfuscates accountability, and gives us leeway to disavow responsibility within the context of petro-capitalism and its relation to colonialism. How can we deal with this? What has all of this to do with artistic practices?

Join us at AKI ArtEZ for our first film screening, where Dr. Agnieszka Wolodzko and Rana Ghavami will explore these questions in their introduction to Bridge Over troubled Water (performance collective MSL and Jaakko Pallasvuo, 2016) and Somnium (Rosa Barba, 2011).

Film 1: Bridge Over troubled Water by performance collective MSL and Jaakko Pallasvuo (2016)