We get to be the asteroid

What else could we talk about if not this disappearing world? The current ecological crisis is not only a moment of imbalance, but also a reminder of the multiple losses we are experiencing. The end of the world is not a resounding bang, it is the whisper of extinction, the lack of water and the polluted air we breathe. Therefore, it is essential to stop postponing our political fantasies and to demand concrete actions in the present. Where do we begin to navigate on such a wounded planet?

In the third edition of Palmera ardiendo, we decided to focus our attention on what surrounds us. We tried to leave behind the grand narratives of climate change and turn to the ravines and our local landscape. We look for spaces to talk, walk, share, and reflect on the species, rocks, and plants that inhabit Cuernavaca. We seek to connect with nature from multiple perspectives, drawing on biology, architecture, poetry, literature, and our own bodies.

We get to be the asteroid, brings together 22 artistic and interdisciplinary proposals, inside and outside La Tallera, born from the explorations, reflections and journeys that we make together, and that seek to delve into the clouds, bees, bats, rivers, flowers, ravines or seeds. In an attempt to make visible what we have forgotten and to show that the world and the things that make it up are in constant flux, we seek to capture our fleeting existence in an environment that persists beyond our understanding. We know that we will not be able to stop the devastation, however, returning to the essential seems to be the way forward; it is in diversifying the ways in which we connect with our environment and the beings that inhabit it, where we can begin to trace the place where we belong.

Timothy Morton warns us, “It is our turn to be the asteroid,” and although the philosopher means that we are the cause of the current degradation of the world, just like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, we can also think of it differently. We can imagine the asteroid as a cosmic traveler capable of altering course. This crisis demands that we face uncertainty, that we connect with the ancestral wisdom of the Earth and that we urgently build other ways of relating to our environment.

We want to burn!

Palmera ardiendo

This exhibition is part of the new program of La oficina, a space that promotes dialogue through by inviting to citizen curatorial projects and self-managed initiatives to carry out collaborative residencies with La Tallera.