future

The term future generally refers to moments yet to come, embodying both uncertainty and potentiality. SMB09 NERIRI KIRURU HARARA (2016) highlighted SMB’s distinctive exhibition methodology by exploring key themes in contemporary art through the lens of collective intelligence. It proposed multiple “futures” as spaces of possibility in contemporary art, abstract entities, and as calls for a new era. While SMB01 (2000) looked toward a hopeful future for the 21st century, subsequent editions of SMB invoked visions of failed utopias and calls for a radical break from the present as the Biennale went through its “adolescence.” In support of this curatorial vision, the SMB09 catalogue included “Architectures of Tomorrow: Art, Science Fiction, and the Mediacity” (2016) by writer and artist Claire Evans. In her essay, Evans examines the aesthetic significance of science fiction and imagines a radical discontinuity by projecting a dislocation of our known existence, which – according to the structuralist Robert Scholes – departs from the explicitly known.