Apparatus 22: Wrestling with Utopia

Artwill presents Apparatus 22: Wrestling with Utopia, an exhibition that tests the generative potential of one of the essential subjects in the artistic practice of the Apparatus 22 collective: the reflection on radical imagination and on utopian universe Suprainfinit.

Curated by Kilobase Bucharest, the exhibition is a hybrid between a non-linear retrospective (featuring works presented mostly internationally since 2015) and a prospective impulse through new installations.

To quote the first Apparatus 22 statement regarding the Suprainfinit utopia: “Somewhere over the infinite or better said beyond the infinite, a universe has slowly taken shape: SUPRAINFINIT. At first it might feel rather similar to our world, a mere copy of it. Nevertheless upon closer inspection there are plenty of asymmetries [...] and SUPRAINFINIT turned into a Utopian container for empowering thoughts on identity, economy, politics, spirituality. There even is a mysterious chant luring one to enter it. Or a gospel, of a new kind, tinged with insidious hope celebrating l’Avenir. There are no maps or GPS for traveling the SUPRAINFINIT and one stumbles onto its unknown potentialities by pure curiosity. [...] Hope is the new oxygen.”

Suprainfinit gradually took shape and consistency in series like Arrangements & Haze, produced in leather to envision a radical body in a distant future or the adventures of a machine named Atletica Ideal, which tries to discover the meaning of pleasure through “sex tapes” and steamy encounters with artworks—a daring proposal imagining love, desire, and pleasure from non-human perspectives.

The approach of Apparatus 22 often involves the staging of conversation pieces—exchanges typical of the gift economy, yet carrying a generous transformative potential (Exchange office: Postcards from Suprainfinit); interactive elements, such as those in the installation Will you keep the lighthouse bright?, a video questionnaire where unusual references and questions urge visitors to self-assess and discover where they stand on the spectrum between utopia and dystopia; the inclusion of invisible forces, such as air, mobilized both as a physical agent and a metaphor for visibility, revealing or concealing the texts conceived by the collective for DISCO PUNCH series—this time in a new version about loss, death, and unbearable economic inequalities; unexpected associations, like the Hope sank teeth into the night, where the clubbing phenomenon is a space of dissidence; or generous approaches, as seen in the work ALL, a strikingly inclusive monument dedicated to the effort of being an artist in the 21st century.

Wrestling with Utopia—an ambiguous construct halfway between a phantom ready to take its first breath and a partial vision of better worlds, while also serving as a reality check—functions as an absolutely necessary counterpoint. In a time when dystopian perspectives, disasters, and fear dominate and suffocate public discourse, the exhibition is a gesture where critique and hope cohabitate and reverberate on a collective level. 

Through this exhibition, Artwill continues to develop a platform dedicated to the presentation and contextualization of Romanian art, proposing meaningful encounters between historically significant practices and contemporary audiences.

Visiting hours: Saturday–Sunday, 10am–6pm / Location: Artwill..., 54 Duetului Street, Bucharest.