Science Fiction(s)

If There Were a Tomorrow

30 March 2023 to 9 January 2024

Information

How do we together shape a future worth living for all? The major annual exhibition Science Fiction(s) – If There Were a Tomorrow in the Weltmuseum Wien presents alternative future scenarios against the background of global crises as tools for critiquing the present, decolonization, and healing. With a focus on Indigenous, Black, and Muslim voices, it draws attention to the perspectives of those who are often excluded from Western narratives about the future. Paintings, installations, films, spaceships, costumes for performances, comics, beadwork, and games by 24 international artists invite visitors to think about the limits of art, pop culture, and activism beyond clichés about the technological colonization of space.

Many of the artists use icons from science fiction to tell their own stories and to reinvent the genre. The exhibition is about empowerment, critiques of “science fiction” as a genre that
continues colonial narratives, and imagining alternatives.

Indigenous artists show that their lives do not belong to the past, and that they are fighting for their future. They defend themselves against land appropriation and the destruction of their
cultural identity. Fictional space travel projects present the journey into the unknown not as a conquest of space, but as a utopian experiment.

“Non-humans” such as algae report on a post-apocalyptic world. With a focus on cosmologies, the exhibition consciously shifts attention to world views that call for responsible action on the part of all and emphasize the connections between people, animals, and other beings.

The curatorial team developed the exhibition around four theses:

  • The West has no monopoly on science fiction and alternative speculative stories about the future.
  • Science fiction in the West is often a thinly veiled story about colonial conquest.
  • Ethnological museums were places for denying the future at the time of their founding.
  • If we wish to design a fair future, we must do this together with all beings on this planet.

 

This year’s exhibition in the Theseus Temple, which opens on April 21, complements Science Fiction(s). At this public location in the Volksgarten in Vienna, the Pakistani-American artist Saks Afridi addresses the following question with his SpaceMosque installation: what would it be like if all our prayers came true?

 

Contact
Nina Auinger-Sutterlüty, MAS
Mag. Sarah Aistleitner
presse@weltmuseumwien.at
T +43 1 525 24 - 4021
or +43 1 525 24 - 4025

Downloads

Downloads

Press kit
Press text (pdf, 437 KB)
Quotes (pdf, 39 KB)

from the curatorial team and the artists

Press photographs
Things Are Looking Native, Native's Looking Whiter (jpg, 1 MB)

Nicholas Galanin
2012
Giclée print
© Nicholas Galanin, courtesy of the artist and
Peter Blum Gallery, New York

Tenacity (jpg, 2 MB)

Andy Everson
2019
Giclée print
Weltmuseum Wien
© Andy Everson

The Zenith (jpg, 4 MB)

Cara Romero
2022
Photography print on Legacy Platine paper
Weltmuseum Wien, acquired with the generous support from Weltmuseum Wien Friends and John D. Marshall
© Cara Romero

SpaceMosque/Sighting 1 (jpg, 549 KB)

Saks Afridi
2018
Collage
© Saks Afridi

Still from the video FUTURE – WORLD – EXV (jpg, 1 MB)

Wilfred Ukpong
Courtesy of the artist
© Wilfred Ukpong

Poder de Tajá (jpg, 2 MB)

Uýra
2021
Photograph
© Uýra Sodoma, photo: Hick Duarte

(De)Colonized Ewok (jpg, 3 MB)

Ryan Singer
2019
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of the Museum of Northern Arizona and the artists (C2860)

Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE (jpg, 1 MB)

Ekow Nimako / @ekownimako
2019
LEGO® pieces
© The Aga Khan Museum, 2020.1.1
photo: Samuel Engelking

A dança dos cabocos (jpg, 2 MB)

Kadu Xukuru
2020
Collage
© Kadu Xukuru

Curando buracos de garimpo (jpg, 4 MB)

Jaider Esbell (1979–2021)
2020
Acrylic on canvas
© Galeria Jaider Esbell de Arte, Indígena
Contemporânea, photo: Daniel Jabra

Petroglifos pra um antigo-futuro (jpg, 2 MB)

Denilson Baniwa with Paulino Fluxus
2020
Photos of a laser projection; Giclée print
© Artists Collection, photo: Minoti

Along the River of Spacetime (jpg, 1 MB)

Elizabeth LaPensée
2020
Video and VR application
Courtesy of the artist

The Zenith (exhibition view) (jpg, 952 KB)

Cara Romero
2022
Photography print on Legacy Platine paper
Weltmuseum Wien, acquired with the generous support from Weltmuseum Wien Friends and John D. Marshall
© Foto: Jonas Thiller

Smart Wars: Kill the Idiot Save the Fan 2.0 (exhibition view)  (jpg, 612 KB)

Roary Wakemup
© Foto: Jonas Thiller

Smart Wars: Kill the Idiot Save the Fan 2.0 (exhibition view)  (jpg, 1 MB)

Roary Wakemup
© Foto: KHM-Museumsverband

Smart Wars: Kill the Idiot Save the Fan 2.0 (exhibition view)  (jpg, 673 KB)

Roary Wakemup
© Foto: KHM-Museumsverband

Balete Gown (exhibition view) (jpg, 1 MB)

Leeroy New
2023
© Foto: Jonas Thiller

Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE (Ausstellungsansicht) (jpg, 1 MB)

Ekow Nimako / @ekownimako
2019
LEGO®-Elemente
© Foto: Jonas Thiller

Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE (Ausstellungsansicht, Detail) (jpg, 1 MB)

Ekow Nimako / @ekownimako
2019
LEGO®-Elemente
© Foto: KHM-Museumsverband

Please note

! The pictures provided must not be manipulated, cropped or used for any other purposes. Our press photographs may be published only with complete reference to each picture, including a copyright notice.

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