AMBIENCE XX

Dunja Zupančič :: Miha Turšič :: Dragan Živadinov

1960, Ilirska Bistrica; 1963, Ljubljana; 1975, Ljubljana; they live in Ljubljana, Slovenia

UMBOT :: MG, 1995–2015–2045

Theater director Dragan Živadinov, visual artist Dunja Zupančič, and designer of zero-gravity environments Miha Turšič are engaged in research into postgravity art. Postgravity art is, as Zupančič explains, an evolutionary art, ontologically conceptual and processual at its base, only possible in zero-gravity conditions where our sense of orientation is lost. The artists’ practice aims at the culturalization of the cosmos, adding the cultural to the scientific, commercial, and military logic which controls space exploration and research. In their practice Živadinov::Zupančič::Turšič use hightechnology tools and employ the logic of suprematism and constructivism in order to make cosmokinetic, blank-body directing and teleological, mechatronic machines, biomechatronics, and satellites-umbots.

Their 50‑year theater project Postgravity art: NOORDUNG started in 1995 with a premiere featuring 14 actors. Five repeat performances are planned over the next 50 years. Should one of the actors die, he or she will be replaced by a remote-controlled sign; male actors and their speech will be substituted by rhythm, while female actors and their speech will be substituted by melody. The first repeat performance took place at 10pm on April 20, 2005 inside the model of the International Space Station (MSK-ISS) in the hydro-laboratory at Star City in Moscow. During the fifth and final performance, scheduled for April 20, 2045, Dragan Živadinov, a candidate cosmonaut of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts’ Training Center in Star City since 1988, will use a spacecraft to launch 14 satellites- umbots into geostatic orbit, from where they will transmit to Earth signals representing the roles played by deceased actors, while at the same time sending high-resolution 3D syntapiens (synthetic homo sapiens) projections of their faces into deep space.