ANTHROPOS (Greek for human, but the real meaning is "someone who looks up to the sky")
Anthropos is an artistic elaboration of the topic of human impact on geology and eco-systems.
Javier Barrios’ latest artist book project is based on the proposed new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene (Greek for man-made), which describes the human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystem. The proposal has received broad support from key researchers and institutions within the field, and it is desired to date the beginning of the epoch at the first successful nuclear explosion (Trinity in 1945).
Through history, man has gone from fearing nature to dominate it. The technology has developed at record speed, and its potential use has become one of our biggest threats. But can technology be our rescue at the same time? Space research has entered a new era, no longer motivated by political positioning, but rather by an understanding of humanity’s need for a way of escape.
With the book Anthropos, Barrios aims to present a dynamic, potent and chaotic representation of the human activity, and set it against nature, which in comparison seems somewhat more still and balanced. He does this by incorporating fragments of human development from primitive to today’s high-tech society through the usage of found photographs, which he has collected over years and which forms part of his artistic practice.
By usage of found photographs, which he has collected over years and that forms part of his artistic practice, Barrios incorporates fragments of human development from the primitive to today's high-tech society, thus reflecting the contrast between nature and human activity.
The book is a result of a two month residency at Galeria MARSO in Mexico City in 2016, and will be presented at MELK in combination with an exhibition that will consist of photographs and sculptures.
Anthropos has been made possible in collaboration with designer and publisher William Løwe Stormdal (Pseudonym Publisher) and writer Carlos Gonzalez.
Text by Carlos Gonzalez.
don’t really know if I am floating the sky has gone away or is falling down in darkness I am at awe trapped freed afraid and curious and trembling me and you and us and all of them and all of us we have never know and will never get to know what we see and seek and yearn for an answer before the question has even come and traced a thousand million paths between the stars drawing cartographies of forbidden barely intuited lands the night of territories of the sky of void and dust and particles densified the nebula as a cloud beyond the clouds where all is all is everything is wholeness we just don’t know the black holes as hunger voids we just can’t stand in the bottom of a pit deep down the depths of a pit delved the sunken depths in the deepest depths of the singularity we crave to escape from the deepest question that burns and fondles inside us before we can even ask what we are where we are where we came from where we will be after the end of time after we die between the sky and the earth we stand and walk on countless certitudes we think we will never go until the earth trembles and everything is in danger of going away the soil and the refuge we live so calm upon walls and under ceilings that cover us and blind us from the sky and suddenly could fall from above or eat us from below terrified we know what we forgot that death might come at any time at any space the nuclear bomb upon us abrupt and unexpected cracking skulls broken legs broken ribs collapsing broken lungs out the air we breathe death burning skin on blindness try to run away but since it isthe ground itself that quakes and burns everything is in danger then there is no place for us to escape to hide from the fury of the earth and survive just to walk through straight and straightened by and from evolving time evolving us our hands and feet on the land of death the volume of the brain vacuum space and the collapsed I try to breathe and the question comes again the why the who the where my sight wanders within the sky and black and white and in between and in within the whole again and again I wait and yearn for the night to come and embrace me its depths and shining stars don’t really know if I am floating the sky has gone away or is falling down in darkness I am at awe trapped freed afraid and curious and trembling me and you and us and all of them and all of us we have never known and will never get to know what we see and seek and yearn for an answer before the question has even come and traced a thousand million paths between the stars drawing cartographies of forbidden barely intuited lands the night of territories of the sky of void and dust and particles densified the nebula as a cloud beyond the clouds where all is all is everything is wholeness we just don’t know the black holes as hunger voids we just can’t stand in the bottom of a pit deep down the depths of a pit delved the sunken depths in the deepest depths of the singularity we crave to escape from the deepest question that burns and fondles inside us before we can even ask what we are where we are where we came from where we will be after the end of time after we die between the sky and the earth we stand and walk on countless certitudes we think we will never go until the earth trembles and everything is in danger of going away the soil and the refuge we live so calm upon walls and under ceilings that cover us and blind us from the sky and suddenly could fall from above or eat us from below terrified we know what we forgot that death might come at any time at any space the nuclear bomb upon us abrupt and unexpected cracking skulls broken legs broken ribs collapsing broken lungs out the air we breathe death burning skin on blindness try to run away but since it is the ground itself that quakes and burns everything is in danger then there is no place for us to escape to hide from the fury of the earth and survive just to walk through straight and straightened by and from evolving time evolving us our hands and feet on the land of death the volume of the brain vacuum space and the collapsed I try to breathe and the question comes again the why the who the where my sight wanders within the sky and black and white and in between and in within the whole again and again I wait and yearn for the night to come and embrace me its depths and shining stars don’t really know if I am floating the sky has gone away or is falling down in darkness I am at awe trapped freed afraid and curious and trembling me and you and us and all of them and all of us we have never known and will never get to know what we see and seek and yearn for an answer before the question has even come and traced a thousand million paths between the stars drawing cartographies of forbidden barely intuited lands the night of territories of the sky of void and dust and particles densified the nebula as a cloud beyond the clouds where all is all is everything is wholeness we just don’t know the black holes as hunger voids we just can’t stand in the bottom of a pit deep down the depths of a pit delved the sunken depths in the deepest depths of the singularity we crave to escape from the deepest question that burns and fondles inside us before we can even ask what we are where we are where we came from where we will be after the end of time after we die between the sky and the earth we stand and walk on countless certitudes we think we will never go until the earth trembles and everything is in danger of going away the soil and the refuge we live so calm upon walls and under ceilings that cover us and blind us from the sky and suddenly could fall from above or eat us from below terrified we know what we forgot that death might come at any time at any space the nuclear bomb upon us abrupt and unexpected cracking skulls broken legs broken ribs collapsing broken lungs out the air we breathe death burning skin on blindness try to run away but since it is the ground itself that quakes and burns everything is in danger then there is no place for us to escape to hide from the fury of the earth and survive just to walk through straight and straightened by and from evolving time evolving us our hands and feet on the land of death the volume of the brain vacuum space and the collapsed I try to breathe and the question comes again the why the who the where my sight wanders within the sky and black and white and in between and in within the whole again and again I wait and yearn for the night to come and embrace me its depths and shining stars....
