V1– V8
2017
objects (leather, laser inscription, hand-dyed in white), 100 x 140 cm
from the series Arrangements & Haze
Courtesy of the artists and Gallleriapiu (Bologna)
V1–V8, a set of eight large leather pieces inscribed by laser with texts written by Apparatus 22, are part of a series titled Arrangements & Haze. They are a reflection from the perspective of SUPRAINFINIT—a utopian universe that Apparatus 22 has been slowly imagining, articulating, and unfolding since 2015. Arrangements & Haze explores radical-body scenarios in the future in relation to work, technology, spirituality, extreme ergonomics, and the economy.
For V1–V8, the collective wrote several poetic, quintessential thoughts meandering between the visceral and the digital, between pleasure and abuse and, most importantly, between the impossible and something that is plausible only by way of radical imagination: from envisioning the body’s ultimate engineering and extreme ergonomics as a result of pressure from market spheres and calls for increasing efficiency (V1) to ethical concerns elicited by the line between use and abuse with regard to a body-machine made specifically for pleasure (V2); from the body as the ultimate organisation to be digitalised (V3) to a text working as an amulet, demanding radical powers for the brain (V4); from thinking of labour in a post-work future (V8) to labs providing artificial happiness for the socially clumsy, lonely humans of tomorrow (V7); from sounds having thoughts and the voice as the ultimate technology for manipulation (V5) to the potentially crushing responsibilities and ethical dilemmas brought about by some scientific breakthroughs (V6).
Artist’s Bio:
Apparatus 22 is a transdisciplinary art collective founded in 2011 by current members Erika Olea, Maria Farcas and Dragos Olea, along with Ioana Nemes (1979–2011), and working between Bucharest, Brussels and the utopian universe Suprainfinit.
They see themselves as a collective of daydreamers, citizens of many realms, researchers, poetic activists and (failed) futurologists interested in exploring the intricate relationships between the economy, politics, gender studies, social movements, and fashion in order to understand contemporary society.
Images credit
Apparatus 22 - V1
2017 | objects (leather, laser inscription, hand-dyed in white) | 100 x140 cm
from the series Arrangements & Haze
Courtesy of the artists and Gallleriapiu (Bologna) | photo by Stefano Maniero
Apparatus 22 – V3
2017 | object (leather, laser inscription, hand-dyed in white) | 100 x140 cm
from the series Arrangements & Haze
Courtesy of the artists and Gallleriapiu (Bologna) | photo by Stefano Maniero
Apparatus 22 – V8
2017 | object (leather, laser inscription, hand-dyed in white) | 100 x140 cm
from the series Arrangements & Haze
Courtesy of the artists and Gallleriapiu (Bologna) | photo by Stefano Maniero