Edina Muftić
Botanica: Metagenomic Mapping
20/03 —11/05/2024
Visual artist Edina Muftić's practice consists of three-dimensional computer-generated videos, virtual spaces and digital graphics, exploring the relationship to virtual spaces. The exhibition Botanica: Metagenomic Mapping presents a video game in a changing Arctic environment that confronts us with the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
In the video game, the viewer assumes the role of a Terrapod, the first of the newly discovered organisms that have begun to emerge as a result of the melting of the permafrost of the Arctic. While exploring the frozen landscape, Terrapod encounters abstract organic forms and, by interacting with them, participates in the re-creation of life in the Arctic ecosystem. The environment is generated based on data from NASA's large-scale environmental change study, the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment - ABoVE, in which scientists highlight the fact that climate change is happening faster in the Arctic than anywhere else on Earth.
In an immersive environment, the artist combines vivid scenes of Arctic flora with disturbing footage from real-life ecological studies on the vulnerability of ecosystems, considering whether this kind of interactive experience can influence our awareness of the severity of the climate crisis. The meditative game thus does not offer a solution or an end goal, but rather a subtle commentary on the inconceivable, but essential interconnectedness of human impact on both nearby and seemingly distant unspoilt parts of the planet.
Edina Muftić’s (1996) primary version of work Biophilia won the 2019 Student Prize at the 25th International Festival of Computer Art (MFRU) in Maribor. A year later, she received the student prize at the 26th MFRU for her work Botanica. In 2022, she exhibited her works in a solo show at gallery DobraVaga. The second iteration of Biophilia was presented in a solo exhibition at the gallery Portal 2-7-7-7-7-8, which was also on view as part of the BITE OF ART festival.
CURATOR: Lara Mejač
PHOTOGRAPHER: Zupanov
INSTALLATION VIEWS
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