Features of the Living

FEATURES OF THE LIVING When can we speak of a living being? What are the essential criteria of life? Where are the limits of definition? Rather than presenting a classical exhibition statement, Features of the Living, in the spirit of postmodernism, has chosen to reappropriate curatorial texts from contemporary exhibitions of related discourses—those it considers as predecessors—and remix them as a way of speaking for itself. Let us see how these selected and condensed excerpts respond to the exhibition’s three questions: ‘The artists challenge the usual understanding of “we,” suggesting that “we” means not only us humans, but also animals and inanimate objects, all equals. Ontology is the study of being, and Object Oriented Ontology is the philosophy attempting to understand our being beyond a human perspective. The world of OOO is a place where clear separations no longer exist.’ (1) ‘And it is through these stories that the destruction and alienation of contemporary existence can trigger creative processes and a new ethics of relationality, which may no longer be truly human.’ (2) ‘The elements of the exhibition are ordinary objects, stripped of their original purpose or pushed to functional excess. Together, they suggest an implicit narrative.’ (3) ‘Whether in organic or fantastical ways, the works explore the notion of alterity by questioning the hybridity that lies in each of us, as well as our relationship to the Living—ultimately leading us to encounter the many faces of the Other that dwells deep within us.’ (4) (1) OOO Object Oriented Ontology, Kunsthalle Basel, 2017-18 (2) Human is, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, 2023 (3) Lőrinc Borsos : nonentity, Kortárs Művészeti Intézet - Dunaújváros (Institute of Contemporary Art), Hungary, 2016 (4) Mille et une vies, Espace Monte-Cristo - Fondation Villa Datris Paris, 2025