This ProtoZone* collects stories of those who are left behind. They are stories of loss and remnants after death, destruction or extinction. Who or what is left behind, and how could these stories be possibly told?
Stories of Those Left Behind resists the notion of a world divided into the realms of the living and the dead, into life as being in the world versus non-life as non-existence. It approaches places of refuge on an unexcited backstage that takes care of what we are left with when left behind.
A person is left behind when a loved one dies. People are left behind when they are socially excluded, discriminated against or even wiped out. More-than-human forms of existence are left behind when their habitats are destroyed, when they become extinct. Each of these experiences leaves traces in the form of memories, objects or stories. Attending to these traces becomes a labor of mourning.
The participating artists show ways of dealing with personal, collective and planetary loss. They suggest how to nurture our relationships with the dead and how to get in touch with our ancestors. Possibly, their memories persist in our bodies, shaping our past and future.
ProtoZone17 suggests a kinship that goes beyond bloodlines and biological origins. How can we build relationships with more-than-human beings? What can we learn from them about care and transience? The works create spaces where transience becomes tangible.
These spaces are both intimate and monumental. They suspend, slow down or stretch time. Because death changes our relationship to time. How does one live in this other, new temporality?
*A Protozone gives space to collaboration and to exhibitions, whose openness is still visible. The Protozone can accommodate any form of art, and it gives room for workshops and scholarship, which in turn engage in a process with other elements in the zone.
The Protozones at Shedhalle are designed to be inclusive, and they enable the collaboration of artists and people with different backgrounds. They allow for slow and persistent action, they create a space where processes can unfold. Shedhalle and its Protozones are places for unconventional practices and for experiments. They give a platform to artists who work in different disciplines, and whose complex biographies and identities we want to accommodate. We perceive the Protozone as a starting point for a community of artists and activists who do not conform to the demands of the art market.