PLAZA PRO­TO­COL: ADAPTATION

We are not sure whether they already exist, but we know we need to build them. Artificial objects, bound together with their surroundings into a string infrastructure. Spreading into their surroundings by employing the entropy of their materials, the topology of their location, the vegetation, the changing weather patterns, and other such variables.

Objects forced into adapting by the changes in the atmosphere. Something that is compelled to conform if it is to continue to exist, trapped in a relationship where everything is already being shifted. Each opportunity for intrusion compromises the object, and differences in the concentrations of these opportunities lead to irregularities in the densities of their distributions. Territories lose the last semblance of domesticity. The host and the guest become equivalent and interchangeable, their form seized by their extract that reduces and adapts them. This reduction-adjustment is not a segregation but a concentration of the extracted detail spreading through the entire atmosphere. Brutal demands adjust the objects’ shapes. Here, adaptation is an economy of interests, a form built out of the necessity for survival. Relationships between bodies and the environment manifest on surfaces—particles in interstices. Forms deviate from strict spatial conformity and embody a nuanced interplay. Adaptation is an endless process, a condensed dance of forces where forms are reshaped and reconfigured in response to changing conditions. This is not a passive surrender but an active engagement with the environment, a negotiation where the boundaries are constantly tested and transformed. A negative space that absorbs and is itself absorbed into its environment. Reactors. And heresies of specializations. A merged multiplicity of fragments.

Plaza Protocol has been developing exhibition situations and opening »portals« in various transitional sites since 2020. It has been exploring ways to “reimagineer” the plots and protocols that shape the way we relate to shifting, volatile environments, conjuring different visions of reality and future.

30 November – 30 December 2023 @ Povšetova ulica, Ljubljana

Artists: Živa Božičnik Rebec, Samra Buljić, Jon Derganc, Maša Knapič, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Ema Maznik Antić, Maks Bricelj, Andrej Škufca, Slavko Tihec, Neja Zorzut, Lara Žagar

Area curated by: Neja Zorzut and Andrej Škufca

Production: Zavod Projekt Atol in collaboration with Šum (Društvo Galerija Boks)

Support: Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture of the City Municipality of Ljubljana.

Related content: ŠUM#20: Adaptation