FLAT AS PIZZA

The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. It is famous for its annual southward late-summer/autumn instinctive migration from the northern and central United States and southern Canada to Florida and Mexico. Since their route spans over 4000 km and is full of obstacles, not all monarchs reach their journey’s end. Source: Wikipedia The DUNA collective’s project observes the world from the point of view of this seemingly irrelevant butterfly that finds itself on the edge of extinction. According to the newest scientific discoveries, as a result of global warming and human activity, such as large-scale construction, the overuse of herbicides and pesticides (which affect its territory and the production of its milky nectar), the monarch population has decreased in the last few decades by 90%. The butterfly’s (non)existence is simultaneously an important indicator of our ecosystem’s changes. What effect will its loss have on the future development of events? May the last Monarch’s proverbial butterfly effect be a death sentence for us as well? These fragile and innocent beings become the central focus of the five-channel video installation in the Pragovka Gallery space, from where they sing their environmental sorrow to the visitor through the voice of singer Amelie Siba. Each new piece of information exponentially increases the rotation’s speed as the 360 photographs of the butterflies are spun and the volume of data being spewed our way grows. Everything, along with the growing sound of a booming black hole, builds up to the point of supersaturation, loss of control and inescapable breakdown, which is at the same time the birth of the hyperobject which goes beyond us and is impossible to comprehend fully. Something so seemingly tender and beautiful as a butterfly changes within a moment into something dark and dangerous, becoming a part of the all-consuming lifeless entity which, whether aware of it or not, has a fundamental effect on our lives. The awareness of these mechanisms and the impact of our actions can aid us in understanding how the world we live in functions