Reset Modernity!

modernity was a way to differentiate past and future, north and south, progress and regress, radical and conservative. however, at a time of deep ecological mutation, such a compass is running in wild circles without offering much bearing anymore. this is why it is time for a reset. let’s pause for a while, follow a procedure and search for different sensors that could allow us to recalibrate our detectors, our instruments, to feel anew where we are and where we might wish to go.

the layout of the exhibition itself offers a set of disorienting/reorienting procedures. no guarantee, of course: this is an experiment, a thought experiment, a gedankenausstellung.

Bruno Latour and his team organized a set of workshops called “reset modernity! shanghai perspective” in may 2017, which resulted in an exhibition. we concentrated on a set of issues that modernity encounters at a time of deep ecological mutation, emphasizing a comparative perspective between europe and china. the four-day program took place at the shanghai himalayas museum, and used documentations assembled specifically for the discussions, which speak to conceptions of science, our understanding of territory and sovereignty, and handling the role of technology. it a complex process of translating and negotiating differences that the team wishes to launch. the chinese participants are encouraged to bring documents, examples, sites, situations, and concepts to light, thus sharing a different view of what constitutes modernity. the purpose of these workshops is to embrace the process of reassessment to compare how european and chinese thinkers, artists, intellectuals, activists, and officials can handle new situations. the goal is not to reopen the tired cliché of an east/west comparison, but to use the formidable trial of ecological mutation to compare how two cultures react and furthermore, how they reassess their own trajectories of modernization. cooperating with two highly complex civilizations that were initially shocked by various forms of modernizations and then, more recently, endured an enormous counter shock as a result of the new climatic regime, offers an ideal situation for productive encounters.