Exit, echoing COP21

Based on an idea by urban planner and philosopher Paul Virilio, a dynamic cartography created by Diller Scofidio + Renfro is the subject of an exhibition presented by the Fondation Cartier at the Palais de Tokyo, echoing COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Based on statistical information, EXIT shows contemporary climate, economic and political migration. Conceived on the occasion of the exhibition Terre Natale, Ailleurs commence ici organized at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in 2008, this immersive video installation is presented in an updated version.

Artists in residence at the Grand Palais, various exhibitions, plays... COP21 provides an opportunity for artists to show their commitment.

 

Ahe Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present the installation Exit at the Palais de Tokyo of the November 25, 2015 to January 10, 2016. Conceived by artists and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro based on an idea by Paul Virilio, this work was created in collaboration with artist and architect Laura Kurgan, artist and statistician Mark Hansen, and a group of scientists from various disciplines. Presented at the Fondation Cartier in the exhibition Terre Natale, Ailleurs commence ici (2008), this work is now part of its collection.

 

Exit consists of a set of animated maps, generated from statistical data on population movements around the world and their main causes. The work was completely updated for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in December 2015. This decisive event provides a particularly relevant context for a work whose subjects are inseparable from the issue of global warming: "It is as if the sky, with its clouds, and its pollution were making their way into history. No longer in the history of the seasons - summer, autumn, winter - but in the history of settlement, in the history of areas that are uninhabitable for one reason or another, and not just for reasons of desertification, but for reasons of disappearance, of submergence of the soil. That is the future. "(Paul Virilio, 2009)

Commissioned by the Cartier Foundation, Exit was created at the end of 2008 for the exhibition Terre Natale, Ailleurs commence ici, at a time when population flows were reaching unprecedented proportions in human history; it was then shown at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen in 2009 during COP15, and then at the inauguration of the Alhóndiga Bilbao in 2010.

Conceived as a work of art, Exit uses geocoded data from over 100 sources, processed through a computer program and then visually interpreted. Exit is a reflection on the notions of rootedness and uprootedness, as well as the identity and ecological issues associated with them. The work addresses a set of problems that have been steadily intensifying since its creation: today, the refugee crisis in Europe makes this new presentation of Exit more topical and relevant than ever.

 

 

Image: Exit, 2008-2015, Scenario "Natural Disasters", Collection Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris © Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Mark Hansen, Laura Kurgan and Ben Rubin in collaboration with Stewart Smith and Robert Gerard Pietrusko