NERO, an international publishing house devoted to art, criticism and contemporary culture, sets out the ideas and concepts behind the festival:

“The pandemic of 2020 and the scorching summers which, thanks to the climate emergency, we have become accustomed to, are symptoms of a catastrophe already underway, and there is little that the green economy and any ‘sustainable’ conversion can do to fight back. It is a catastrophe which is forcing mankind to ask questions that would have been unthinkable before now: are we on the verge of extinction? How is it possible to live on a planet whose resources have been depleted by mankind? What ties can we form in the middle of an environmental apocalypse, and also within the current political, economic, and societal situation?”

Within this scenario, SUPERCATASTROPHE assumes the form of a ‘hyperobject’ exhibition, a concept which the philosopher and ecologist Timothy Morton has used to describe a particular genre of ‘objects’ where we can perceive their boundaries but never have a complete and clear picture of what they actually are. The exhibition will create an immersive environment within the spaces at Manifattura Tabacchi, with videos, literature, sounds and spoken words forming a kind of media archive on the climate emergency and the impact the mankind is having on planet Earth. 

“A hyperobject could be a black hole. A hyperobject could be the oil field in the area of Lago Agrio, in Ecuador, or the Everglades reserve in Florida. A hyperobject could be a biosphere or the solar system. A hyperobject could be the complex sum of all of the nuclear material present on Earth” Hyperobjects (NERO Editions, 2018)

The outfitting of the exhibition forms part of the exhibition itself and is curated by the artistic and architectural collective Parasite 2.0, using reprocessed discarded items and fluorescent pigments as a means of reflecting on the relationship between the natural habitat and human intervention.

Within the outfitting by Parasite 2.0 there is a wide selection of videos from Medusa, a leading Italian newsletter on the Anthropocene, which has scoured the web and Youtube to collate an alienating portrait of a planet in collapse. Accompanying this spectacle will be a sound collage which brings together research carried out by Threes in the area of experimental electronic music and environmental sustainability, and there will also be a selection of literature from Not, creating a library of volumes especially selected for the occasion, which the public are free to use and consume.

For those looking to go deeper on a technical level into the themes of SUPERCATASTROPHE, there will be two public talks. The first will take place on 9 October at 19:30 with researchers and scholars Clara Ciccioni, Federica Timeto and Miriam Tola, drawing links between the notion of the Anthropocene and the writings of American philosopher Donna Haraway, one of the leading theorists of our time. The second is a performance/lecture from artist and engineer Andreco on 10 October at 18:00, looking into the relationship between art, science and the environment in the middle of an environmental crisis and a pandemic.

The talks will be live streamed on the Facebook event page SUPERCATASTROPHE – God is Green III Edition.

Taken together, everyone involved in SUPERCATASTROPHE will be exploring the many possible “stories to tell for the end of the world”, embracing the complexity and the fragmentation of our contemporary world, and giving the viewer the opportunity to experience the exhibition in a free and personal way.

In support of the festival’s events, there will be an exhibition of posters specifically made for the occasion of God is Green by Ludovica Anversa, Ambra Castagnetti, Diana De Luca, Chiara Gambirasio, Nicola Ghirardelli, and Max Mondini, the artists in residency for L’armonia, the 2020-2021 edition of the Art Residencies programme from Manifattura Tabacchi, curated by Sergio Risaliti.