09 November - 11 November 2020
Root Rot
Curator: Nora V. Weller
Concept: Root rot is a disease that attacks the roots of trees that grow in damp or wet soil. This disease shortens the life of almost any kind of tree or plant. By moving the soil from the natural outdoor environment to which it belongs, in an internal and artificial one, it limits the oxygen it needs. In this case the decay occurs slowly but surely. It starts with a strong and unpleasant smell and the indoors environment begins to suffocate the inhabitants.
Exhibition summary: Root Rot invites the visitor to reflect on the cause and effect relationship and the general insensitivity in today’s society. In the midst of poverty, daily politics, corruption, war crimes and the global pandemic, the roots of the society begin to resemble a similar sort of decay.
The heavy smell of the decay is increasingly affecting the surroundings, each and every day there is a slow but certain slow loss of patience, safety and mental health.
Curatorial Concept:
Root rot invites the visitor to reflect on the cause and effect relationship through a seemingly simplistic example of transformation that is found in earth decay. The artist opted to bring the process of decay closer to the viewer and displaced the soil from its natural environment to an artificial one indoors. With the limited levels of oxygen and the dump environment, the decay occurs gradually and surely. The process of decay as such remains unseen, but after a while its effects are felt through a strong and unpleasant smell which eventually suffocates the space. The distinctive unpleasant smell travels in a persistent manner and seeps everywhere. The setting created by the artist invites us to consider how do we question the causes of
decay and how do we live with its effects? If we become aware that the earth rots in a gradual form, should we intervene, act and prevent, or simply become accustomed to the effects? Exploring life mediations, Decartes asks a relevant question: “Where could the effect get the reality from, apart from its cause? Root Rot leaves us with the effects in a form of a smell which can not be caught, controlled or suspended with ease, but they are also no longer possible to live with. The artist chose to accompany the silent earth exhibited here with a visual representation of the daily process of decay. It is an invitation for the viewer not to sit comfortably. In the midst of a chaotic social order where poverty is constantly on the rising, corruption is a norm, temper is lost, mental health is not a subject matter, causes and effects are not thoroughly questioned. Human behaviour is absorbed by the superficial normalcy which in turn is met with a general sense of apathy. The artist here extends an invitation to reflect on the roots of our society resembling a similar sort of decay that takes place silently beneath the earth.
Links:
“Paper Gallery”, një mundësi e re për ekspozimin e veprave të artistëve
New exhibition at the Paper Gallery wants you to sit uncomfortably
