multiplex fiction

THE END OF NATURE
Some Contradictions in Current Debates on Ecology and Crisis
with Ralo Mayer and Tomash Schoiswohl
Shedhalle Zürich, 14.11. – 1.3.2015

All things are connected. Man does not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

“All things are connected” has been chanted by the ecological movement for decades, quoting a speech by Native American Chief Seattle from 1854.

At the same time, we find this chant strangely echoed in the wide field of conspiracy theories:
JFK, the moon, Reptilians, UFO’s of Aliens and Nazis, chemtrails, HAARP, 9-11, climate change denial – where to start?
Lines, lines, lines, and so many of these lines are linked to ecological themes. Antarctica seems a hotspot, secret pollutions of the air and the mind, and the Earth is being abused, controlled and exploited by sinister powers.
We really need to free Gaia (yo mama).
But if we have never been to the moon, how do we even know what the Whole Earth looks like?
If Aliens are in charge, is all that talk about the Anthropocene nothing but obscene?

So isn’t it kind of heartwarming that, for all we know, Chief Seattle never said these words in the first place.
Some speech did happen at that gathering to discuss the sale of native land, but none of the white settlers understood a word.
The famous quote has been pimped by a screenwriter for an environmental TV-movie in 1972.

I’m happy to invite you to this and more false polarity bears in my new installation Just because ur paranoid doesn’t mean ecology.