Contemporary virtual reality and the creeping merger of technology and our bodies seem to define the future of the human species in an unprecedented way. By offering the promise of a life free from biological, spatial and temporal constraints, they materialise old millenarian ideas and the primordial desire to achieve immortality.
The exhibition focuses on the attempt to overcome death as the main vector of futurological concepts of humanity. While referring to contemporary transhumanism, Russian cosmism and ancient roots, it tells the story of the last people.
The exhibition will be accompanied by the defence of the artist’s doctoral dissertation.
Paweł Baśnik (b. 1992) is a co-founder of the Bezimienny painting collective, the Church of Nihilists – a para-religious art group and gallery, and the Przemijam magazine. He has graduated from the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the E. Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. In his practice he refers to mortuary issues and historical and psychological motives. His latest works raise topics connected with transhumanist notions of immortality, including their mythological and religious roots, posing questions about the origins and limits of civilisational progress. He lives and works in Wrocław.