organs-without-bodies

SWAMP ISLAND LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM
(opening portals from 1400 until the sun sets) 3 Oct, 2021, Aberdeen

while some dream of touch, conversations, spirits and music, drawn to living in a community that is still an idealised memory, others learn to adapt to the rhythm of nature by discovering a new ability of being in their own company and listening to their bodies. in both of these attitudes there is a longing, a primal desire to unite and find oneself as part of a larger, metaphysical organism. the lack of physicality results in a feeling of loss and bizarre loneliness, so we compensate for it with cold air, the smell of fog and rot, the taste of rain. wanting to multiply the sensory experiences of our bodies thriving for connection, we run away to nature, paradoxically looking for other people in it. this relationship between isolation, nature and the desire for connection is the focus of the exhibition. over several months of incubation, the objects evolved, ideas transformed appearing and dying like organic beings, to finally emerge from the swamp as day bleeds into night, casting shadows of dismay and awe into the periphery of all watchers. by opening a small portal to this alternative world in which pandemic's desires, fears and hopes materialise among water, plants and mud, we create a place of union between human and human, human and nature, and - finally - the entire ecosystem - both physical and spiritual.
the swamp island presents itself as a speculative, temporary living history museum that exists in an alternative time and space. a site for collective hope, dreaming and imagining. artworks become artefacts that thrive in darkness. artefacts become tokens of resilience, or spirits to ward off harm and co-exist within these times of uncertainty.
the word ‘miasma’ is excavated from a defunct theory, where it was believed that epidemics were caused by rotting organic matter, or ‘night air’, encouraging the masses to stay inside and away from the natural world.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
ane smith
antivirus
astrid björklund
caitlin dick
emily doherty
jared cameron
ray downie & saoirse horne
zsofia jakab