Photos by kunst-dokumentation

 

Cable-to-Cradle presents an alternative reality that balances the imaginative with the peculiar and gruesome. For untitled projects, Marie Munk has produced 8 coherent works that form a complete installation. The gallery space is filled with high-tech cradles, each carrying a sort of artificial uterus. The 8 meticulously aligned cradles in the bright gallery space are united in a comprehensive circuit of umbilical-like cords. The circuit manifests itself as extensively complex but systematically organized cable systems across the gallery's ceiling and walls, creating a bizarre mix of a delivery room and a data center.

 

The present is shrinking. If you look at the graphs of population growth, CO2 emissions, acidification of the oceans, loss of biodiversity, increase in computing power and so on, an exponential pattern emerges, where within the last few decades it draws a steep curve. Everything is changing more and more fast and it is increasingly difficult to keep up. Simultaneously technology is more and more often entering and replacing biological processes from which we humans for thousands of years have defined our existence.

     With Cable-to-Cradle Marie Munk establishes a pause for thought by confronting visitors with the increasing fusion of body and technology in the very infancy of life; man's most fragile stage.

 

In the work ’Cable-to-Cradle’ Marie Munk explores the concept of ectogenesis; a technology where a child is created in an artificial uterus - a so-called ’biobag’.

     In the course of time ectogenesis will in all probability make it possible to perform fertilization and pregnancy outside the physical framework of the body. The artificial wombs can act as high-tech foster mothers and make the bodily pregnancy an unnecessary risk. Perhaps one would even think that it is more ethical to use biobags, as it seems like an impossibility to dehumanize or exploit a machine.

     The ectogenesis of the future interferes with the basic biological conditions of man and helps to bind the human body and technology even more closely together. Is it a natural part of human evolution in an anthropocene age where we are slowly freeing ourselves from the burdensome bonds of biology? Or do we risk stigmatizing the body's biological processes without knowing the actual consequences for our body and psyche? How will the notion of motherhood change as it becomes more and more entangled with technology?

 

’Cradle-to-Cradle’ is a term born of the Green Transformation and describes biological and technical circuits where consumption and production have a positive effect on the economy, the environment and people.

     The exhibition title Cable-to-Cradle plays on this idea of ​​a circular and positive system, and contains a belief in a bright future in relation to the synergy between people and technology. At the same time, the title breaks the cycle and refers to how we increasingly let technology interfere earlier and earlier in our human lives.

 

With an ‘uncanny’ visual language, Munk evokes the emotions that arise when we encounter something unknown and immediately abhorrent, in an attempt to speak to the unconscious and irrational in people. With Cable-to-Cradle she is hoping to open people's imaginations and challenge normative notions of the biological human being at a time when technological innovation, momentum and productivity both characterize and dominate our environment, our behavior and our bodies.

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Cable-to-Cradle Past Shows:

CABLE-TO-CRADLE (solo)

Untitled Projects, Vienna, Austria

OCTOBER 10 - DECEMBER 24 2020