Beyond the End

Humans have shaped our planet like no other species before. Not for the better, many believe. The world seems to have lost its balance. Apocalyptic visions are spreading, archaic thinking patterns once thought to be overcome are resurfacing, revealing a longing for simple answers. Autocrats win elections, evangelical preachers conjure up the end of the world and fill concert halls with their messages, and in movies, superheroes snap their fingers and restore paradise and harmony by wiping out half of all life. In the real world, fear of the future leads to struggles over resources and rigid border demarcations, where survival is at stake as well.

But what is “the end”? What does it look like? What happens afterwards? Will all borders dissolve or will new ones be drawn? If nothingness follows, are we all “out”? If salvation follows, are we all “in”? And: Are there still beautiful sunsets if no one is there to see them?

In our participatory installation, visitors encounter a distillation of the often simplifying present and of hope oriented toward technological progress. At the same time, they are invited to contribute to shaping a universe of ideas about a future with or without humanity, which completes the installation as an acoustic layer.