Remote Frictions

"Remote Frictions”, a group show with a field recordings lecture performance by Julia Grillmayr and a live act by LIBRAMAR, takes place in Seestadt. As a Viennese urban development project, Seestadt is envisioned as the city of the future — a utopia constructed from sketches and continually evolving into tangible realities. Drawing inspiration from the artistic approach of “world-building”, Zastava and Phos co-curated this group show, set against Seestadt's dystopian-futuristic concrete backdrop by delving deep into the realm of speculative fictions. Coined by Robert A. Heinlein, the term "speculative fiction" describes narratives centered on human adaptions and responses, typically as they navigate unfamiliar terrains and novel circumstances. Utopian ideologies that pursue a connection between humans, flora, fauna and technology always reflect humanities own needs and are ultimately the result of a projection of human values ​​onto a non-human system. Recognizing this, especially given our present-day crises and challenges, it becomes vital to juxtapose reality with new speculative narratives.