Gints Gabrāns, Arnis Rītups (LV)
The Sower
Video and mycelium installation, 2023-2025.
The Sower, courtesy of the artists.
The Sower takes the form of an artistic mystification and falsification, in which the authors, for reasons even they cannot explain, sow spores of the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). What is captured here is a climactic fragment of a global mission during which spores were scattered over New York, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and Riga — though the ultimate goal was to let the fly agaric reach the stratosphere. Conceptually, the work draws attention to the kingdom of fungi — the “funga” — whose reigning monarch is often considered to be the fly agaric, and to the long-overdue inevitability of recognizing it as distinct yet equal to flora and fauna (flora, fauna, funga). But what concern has a fly agaric with words and their recognition?
Perhaps reaching the stratosphere is only an intermediate stage, whose ultimate purpose is not yet visible. Perhaps it is the fly agaric itself that drives us — seeking to spread and become ever more visible — its hidden intention disguising itself, in a psychoparasitic way, as an artistic performance. Perhaps we are merely its agents of influence, even as we imagine ourselves acting of our own free will, or inspired by Kārlis Skalbe’s tale The Fifteen. Perhaps what lies here is a possibility of interspecies synergy and symbolic symbiosis. Perhaps it is a step toward an apocalyptic union of mycelium and artificial intelligence (most likely, such a union could only occur through human mediation). Perhaps something lives through us. Perhaps we do not know what and why we are doing. Perhaps no one does.
Gints Gabrans is one of the most prominent artists of the 1990s generation in Latvia. In creating installations, video works, and internet art projects, Gabrans uses an interdisciplinary approach to his visual research themes, combining insights gained from experiments in the exact sciences with free artistic fantasies.
The Sower, courtesy of the artists.
Gints Gabrāns, Arnis Rītups (LV)
Sējējs
Video un micēlija instalācija, 2023-2025.
Darbs “Sējējs” veidots mākslinieciskas mistifikācijas un falsifikācijas formā, kur autori pašiem neizskaidrojamu iemeslu dēļ sēj sarkanās mušmires (Amanita muscaria) sporas. Te fiksēts kulminatīvs fragments no globālas misijas, kuras laikā sporas tika izsētas virs Ņujorkas, Londonas, Parīzes, Romas, Berlīnes un Rīgas, taču virsmērķis bija ļaut sarkanai mušmirei nonākt stratosfērā. Konceptuāli tas saistīts ar uzmanības pievēršanu sēņu valstībai jeb fungai, par kuras valdnieci daudzviet uzskata Sarkano mušmiri, un sen nobriedušai neizbēgamībai atzīt to par atšķirīgu, bet līdzvērtīgu florai un faunai (flora, fauna, funga). Taču kāda sarkanai mušmirei daļa gar vārdiem un to atzīšanu?
Varbūt nonākšana stratosfērā ir tikai starpposms, kura gala mērķis nav acīm redzams. Varbūt mūs virza pašas mušmires vēlme izplesties un kļūt vēl redzamākai, un šis viņas slēptais nodoms psihoparazītiski uzdodas par māksliniecisku performanci. Varbūt mēs tiekam izmantoti kā viņas ietekmes aģenti, lai gan iedomājamies, ka kaut ko darām paši no sava prāta vai Kārļa Skalbes pasakas “Piecpadsmit” ietekmē. Varbūt te slēpjas sugu sinerģijas un simboliskas simbiozes iespēja. Varbūt tas ir solis pretim apokaliptiskam micēlija un mākslīgā intelekta savienojumam (visticamāk, šāds savienojums iespējams tikai ar cilvēka starpniecību). Varbūt mūs kāds dzīvo. Varbūt mēs nezinām, ko un kāpēc darām. Varbūt neviens nezina.