My text SUDDEN DROP OFF: a landfill's and a wasteland's social horizons features in the publication Beyond Human Horizons, accompanying the exhibition To Be We Need to Know the River.
My text "Sudden Drop Off" considers two rehabilitated urban environments and their constructed horizons in the city of Helsinki: the landfill of Vuosaarenhuippu and the skatepark of Suvilahti DIY. The curved silhouettes of these two sites tell stories of pollution, of ideals and use imposed on the land: interventions which - quite literally - swell up the horizon of landscapes that try to negotiate our mistakes.
The publication includes written and visual works by Micol Curatolo, Martina Francone, Hayley Harrison, Fiona Glen, Chantelle Mitchell, Sabīne Šnē, Nastia Svarevska, and Jaxon Waterhouse.
The publication is available as an audio book on Soundcloud: Beyond Human Horizons.
To Be We Need to Know the River is the first UK-based solo show by Latvian artist Sabīne Šnē, curated by Nastia Svarevska at Lot Projects, London Fields between 23-29 August 2023.
"We become with each other or not at all" - Donna Haraway
In her creative practice, Sabīne Šnē constructs visual stories in order to explore the intersections between culture and nature, informed by historical and current ideas.
Through a combination of scientific facts, science fiction and 3D worldbuilding, To Be We Need to Know the River speculates on different possibilities for re-worlding, centred around collaborative strategies for ecological survival and new symbiotic relationships between humans, non-humans, and nature.
As the threat of climate change intensifies, it forces us to confront difficult questions about the future of our planet. What might Earth look like? Can it continue to support both human and non-human life? How will ecological, existential, legal, and political frameworks shape our world?
And what can we learn from our non-human neighbours - from blue mussels and dung beetles to lichens and mycelium?
The exhibition includes a publication and public program featuring Attendant Writing by Fiona Glen and Circle of Listening by Hayley Harrison. These workshops provide an opportunity for visitors to explore their own relationship with nature and other beings.
Curated by Nastia Svarevska.
Images courtesy Sabīne Šnē. Photos by Chris Denoon.
*To Be We Need to Know the River takes its title from a poem by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Sabīne Šnē graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2020) and Master of Fine Arts (2022) from the department of Visual Communication of the Art Academy of Latvia. She has participated in various group exhibitions and art projects in Latvia and abroad, including If Disrupted, It Becomes Tangible. Infrastructures and Solidarities beyond the post-Soviet Condition (2023, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius), Valmiera's International Multimedia Festival (2023, Hanza square, Valmiera), GeneralSharing: 27 m above the Sea, (2022, Vent Space, Tallinn) and GeneralSharing: 19m above the Sea (2022, Köysiratagalleria, Turku), The Litlle Bird Must Be Caught, Survival Kit 13 (2022, Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga), Splintered Realities, RIXC Art and Science Festival (2022, KIM? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga), Augmented Experiences (2021, RIXC, Riga), Hidden Treasures (2021, Rucka, Cēsis), Hard Drive of Lost Expressions in collaboration with Linda Vilka (2020, Pilot, Rīga), Unseen Projects (2020, Vilnius Art Academy, online), Pavedieni, cultural forum Baltā nakts (2020, National Library of Latvia, Rīga), Točka (former factory Provodnik, Rīga), Cosmo (2019, SILOS Centre of Art and Culture, Portugal). In winter 2022 she had her first solo show Partner, Parasite (KIM? Contemporary Art Centre, Rīga). Šnē has won the Helen Scott-Lidgett Award 2022/2023 and is part of ACME Studios Early Career Award Program.
Supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia.
Lot Projects is a wheelchair accessible venue.
