OnLife
a project by Giacomo Zaganelli in collaboration with Angelika Stepken
10 April – 22 May 2020, extended to 15 June 2020
With contributions by Silvia Piantini, Fabrizio Bellomo, Yao Jui Chung, Leone Contini, Mischa Leinkauf, Armin Linke, Johannes Paul Raether, Christian Naujoks, Rosa Barba, Gabriele De Seta, Takayoshi Kitagawa, Antje Majewski, Giacomo Zaganelli, Nasan Tur.
In the space of a few short weeks the world is changing in a way that no one could have foreseen until the virus spread around the planet. Economies, enterprises, institutions, social systems, civil rights, biographies and lives are collapsing. Which people in the world will be able to reinvent themselves? And which won’t? The human species faces a new era and a new responsibility. Let’s not just sit in the waiting room focusing on our own survival and careers; it’s time to act and to react. We are in charge of our future and that of the planet. Artists are challenged to share their reflections and imaginings about today’s world and what it could be like after tomorrow. What will the New World look like? What should we save from the Old World we know?
OnLife is an attempt at reaction to the global impasse provoked by the effects of the virus.
An immediate art experiment intended to investigate which is the potential of such an initiative that – taking inspiration from the extra-ordinary moment we are addressing – aims to make things happen going beyond ordinary structures, schedules and restrictions.
Just ten days have passed between its conception and its publication.
OnLife is an exhibition that reflects the Zeitgeist, the current spirit of the time, we are all obliged to stayat home, keeping social relationships alive only online. This is why it has been organized online, conceived for online fruition and hosted on the Villa Romana website.
A very special thanks to all the artists for their generous cooperation
* The Onlife Manifesto: Being human in a hyperconnected era is a book by the Italian philosopher Luciano Floridi and his team of researchers.