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ÜberNatur – Natural Takeover

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posted on 2024-07-25, 02:09 authored by Dane MitchellDane Mitchell
Two Stealth Cell Towers are permanently installed in a public park in Köln, Germany. These are part of the larger Post hoc project — two fake-tree telecommunication towers, used across the world by the telecommunication and surveillance industries to camouflage technology in the landscape, to realise a work that announces and transmits a list handmade by the artist of lost, extinct and disappeared entities and phenomena (approximately 260 categories). The list, which takes over six months to read, is uttered by an electronic voice and can be heard from the two trees in the park or listened to by way of the WIFI network generated by the cell-trees. The vast list spans an almost incomprehensible range of subjects: missing artworks; extinct sign languages; lost bodies of water; discontinued newspapers; banned and withdrawn pharmaceuticals; chimerical, forbidden or impossible colours; extinct plants; lost films; previously recognised constellations; destroyed comets; banned aroma molecules; defunct electronic trading platforms; historical currencies; closed nuclear facilities; failed banks; black holes; fossilised birds; prehistoric mammals; sinkholes; cured diseases; former national anthems; tax havens; extinct birds; destroyed monuments; recessions; discontinued photographic film; dinosaurs; disbanded political parties; censored exhibitions; secret societies; supernova; lost archives to name but a few. Post hoc takes a look at the implications of the disappearance.

History

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NTRO Output Type

  • Curated Exhibition, Event or Festival

NTRO Output Category

  • Curated Exhibition, Event or Festival : Exhibition/event

Place

Koln, Germany

Venue

Skulpturen Park Köln, Köln, Germany

NTRO Publisher

Skulpturen Park Köln, Köln, Germany & Ludwig Museum, Germany

Start Date

2020-04-01

End Date

2100-12-12

Medium

various

Research Statement

Contemporary art, Post hoc conjures the ghosts of our past, calling up millions of lost, extinct and obsolete things. Post hoc signals the contingent methodology of constructing history and knowledge, casting light on the impact problematic processes Enlightenment ideals and Western epistemologies have had on this post-truth, post-colonial moment and the West's propensity to seek to contain the world. These two stealth cell towers are part of the larger Post hoc project and are permanently installed in a public opark and are part of a major German museums collection.

Size or Duration of Work

DImensions variable, permanently installed in park in Germany

Affiliation

Dane Mitchell, University of Melbourne

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