Suzanne Treister
HEXEN 2.0
7 March–1 May 2012
Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London SW7 2DD
The Science Museum premieres HEXEN 2.0, a major new exhibition by artist Suzanne Treister, as part of its contemporary arts programme.
HEXEN 2.0 looks into histories of scientific research behind government programmes of mass control, investigating parallel histories of countercultural and grass roots movements. The exhibition charts, within a framework of post Second-World-War US governmental and military imperatives, the coming together of the physical and social sciences through the development of cybernetics, the history of the internet, the rise of Web 2.0 and increased intelligence gathering. It explores the implications for the future of new systems of societal manipulation towards a control society.
Looking at real life events, HEXEN 2.0 specifically investigates the participants of the seminal Macy Conferences (1946–1953 NYC), whose primary goal was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind. The project simultaneously looks at diverse philosophical, literary and political responses to advances in technology, including the claims of Anarcho-Primitivism and Post Leftism, Theodore Kaczynski/The Unabomber, Technogaianism and Transhumanism. It traces precursory ideas such as those of Thoreau, Warren, Heidegger and Adorno in relation to visions of utopic and dystopic futures from science-fiction literature and film.
HEXEN 2.0 is the sequel to Treister’s acclaimed HEXEN 2039, and brings together a group of large-scale, densely plotted ‘alchemical’ diagrams, photo-text works, a hand-coloured set of 78 re-imagined Tarot cards and a film representing a cybernetic séance, offering a space where one may use the works as a tool to envision possible alternative futures.
Opening on 7 March 2012, HEXEN 2.0 is a free exhibition, running until 1 May 2012. The exhibition will occupy the Bridge gallery of the Science Museum for eight weeks only.
The project also includes a dedicated website and a book, published by Black Dog Publishing. HEXEN 2.0 Literature is being exhibited simultaneously at WORK from 16 March 2012.
“HEXEN 2.0 is a unique critical overview of modern intellectual and scientific history.” Lars Bang Larsen
About the Artist
Suzanne Treister was a pioneer in the digital/new media/web based field from the beginning of the 1990s. Her practice, which also encompasses drawing, watercolour, video, installation and photography, engages with eccentric narratives and unconventional bodies of research, to reveal structures that bind power, identity and knowledge.
Suzanne Treister has exhibited recently at: Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany; D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig, Germany; P.P.O.W, New York, USA; Le Plateau Art Center, FRAC Paris, Ile de France; Museum of Contemporary Art Bordeaux (CAPC), France; Temporary Kunsthalle, Berlin, Germany; Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; Center for Contemporary Art, Torun, Poland; Annely Juda Fine Art, London; Alma Enterprises, London; Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV), Dortmund, Germany; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, USA; Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland.
Science Museum, London
For press information and images, contact Nicola.ryan [at] sciencemuseum.org.uk / 020 7942 4328.
Visitor Information:
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD. Open daily 10 to 18, except 24–26 December. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk / 0870 870 4868
Twitter – @sciencemuseum Facebook – www.facebook.com/sciencemuseumlondon
HEXEN 2.0/Literature at WORK, London
From March 16–May 12 Black Dog Publishing’s affiliate gallery, WORK will exhibit HEXEN 2.0/Literature.
WORK, 10a Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG. URL: www.workgallery.co.uk
Opening hours: 12–5.30pm, Wednesday–Saturday (excluding public holidays)
For further details please contact Kate Trant or Marianne Templeton: info [at] workgallery.co.uk
HEXEN 2.0 Publication and Tarot Deck by Black Dog Publishing, London
A 160 page full colour book illustrating the works comprising HEXEN 2.0 with an essay by Lars Bang Larsen, and a separately available working Tarot Deck are published by Black Dog Publishing, London. www.blackdogonline.com
